System and method for assignment and switching of content sources for a streaming content session

摘要

Various embodiments of a system and method for assignment and switching of content sources for a streaming content session are described. Embodiments may include the generation and use of content source rankings for improving playback quality of content streams. In embodiments, a merchant system may collect and aggregate multiple quality metrics for different content streams that various content sources provide to various clients. The merchant system may utilize the quality metrics to generate rankings of content sources for clients. The merchant system may provide such rankings to clients to improve the content stream playback experience on the client. For instance, at content acquisition time, a client may request a content stream from a content resource ranked highest on a content source ranking provided by the merchant. If the content stream degrades, the client may source subsequent portions of the content stream from another highly ranked content source of the ranking.

主权项

1. A system, comprising:
one or more memories; and one or more processors coupled to the one or more memories, wherein the one or more memories comprise program instructions executable by the one or more processors to:
receive, at a computer system from a plurality of remotely located clients, wherein the computer system is separate from the plurality of remotely-located clients, quality metrics for a plurality of streaming content sessions, each quality metric indicating a measure of quality of playback of streamed content of the streaming content sessions;generate, at the computer system, a ranking of content sources based on at least some of the quality metrics, wherein a given ranking specifies multiple content sources each ranked on expected quality of a streaming content session between a respective content source and a respective client; andprovide the generated ranking of content sources to one or more clients for use in selecting, during a first portion of a given streaming content session and in response to performance degradation of a first content source, a second content source to switch to for a second portion of the given streaming session.