Minimizing unicast bandwidth in an adaptive bit rate system

摘要

A multicast adaptive bit rate receiver is employed delay issuance of specific unicast HTTP adaptive bit rate media segment requests while waiting for receipt of stripped multicast media segments from a multicast server. An HTTP proxy may create a new internal state that waits for subsequent media segment URL requests. As the stripped multicast media segments are received, the HTTP requests queued in the proxy may be delivered to the local ABR client.

主权项

1. A multicast receiver in an adaptive bit rate system, the adaptive bit rate system having a multicast server for generating a manifest file identifying available content and for multicasting segments of an adaptive bitrate stream to a plurality of adaptive bit rate clients in a multicast group and to the multicast receiver, the multicast receiver for reducing an initial startup unicast bandwidth for at least one adaptive bit rate client requesting to join the multicast group, the multicast receiver comprising:
one or more processors; and a memory communicatively coupled to at least one of the one or more processors, the one or more processors configured for: in response to at least one adaptive bit rate client's adaptive bitrate request, initiating a join of the multicast receiver to an in-session multicast stream by the multicast server having a version of the adaptive bitrate stream associated with requested content, wherein the multicast receiver collects segment data for transmitting upon request to the plurality of adaptive bit rate clients; receiving multicast data from a multicast session's current multicast of segment N, wherein multicast data received by the multicast receiver begins at a point X of the in-session multicast stream corresponding to a join time of the multicast receiver to the multicast server's multicast session; identifying one or more segments to deliver to the requesting adaptive bit rate client based on segment data occurring prior to point X of the multicast stream, the identified one or more segments including at least one of a segment prior to segment N in the multicast stream or segment N; delaying delivery of requested content to the requesting adaptive bit rate client while waiting for a collection of the one or more identified segments by the multicast receiver; and delivering the one or more segments identified for delivery to the at least one adaptive bit rate client that occur prior to point X of the multicast stream to the requesting adaptive bit rate client.