METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DISTRIBUTING MEDIA CONTENT

摘要

A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, initializing a boundary estimate for an optimization of a linear programming model describing a network of media servers for servicing requests for media content items from subscriber devices, where the boundary estimate is an estimate of an infeasible solution of the linear programming model, and calculating iteratively, using an exponential potential function, additional boundary estimates for the linear programming model, wherein the calculating resolves to an improved boundary estimate that corresponds to placement of copies of the media content items at the media servers subject to a set of constraints on storage capacity of media servers and on bandwidth for communication links in the network. Other embodiments are disclosed.

主权项

1. A server comprising:
a processor; and a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising:
receiving a forecast of demand for media content items for streaming from a network of media servers in response to requests from subscriber devices;receiving a set of constraints on storage capacity of the media servers and a bandwidth for communication links in the network;initiating a boundary estimate for evaluating a linear programming model of the network of media servers, wherein the boundary estimate is an estimate of an infeasible solution of the linear programming model;initializing a scaling factor for a variable of the linear programming model;calculating iteratively, using an exponential potential function, a series of additional boundary estimates for the linear programming model, wherein the scaling factor is adjusted by discrete steps for each iteration of the calculating and wherein the calculating resolves to an improved boundary estimate that corresponds to placement of copies of the media content items at the media servers and to routing of requests for the media content items from local media servers to non-local media servers so as to reduce total data traffic over the communication links in the network according to the constraints; andprovisioning the placement of the copies and the routing of the requests according to the improved boundary estimate.