Efficiently distributing video content using a combination of a peer-to-peer network and a content distribution network

摘要

A method, system and computer program product for efficiently distributing video content. A peer-to-peer network and a content distribution network are used in combination to distribute video content. A content distribution network relies on servers distributed across the Internet to achieve high quality content delivery at a high cost. A peer-to-peer network distributes content among peers without incurring server side cost but may experience poor performance. The peer-to-peer network and the content distribution network are leveraged in a manner that achieves high content delivery and low cost by allowing the peer-to-peer network to serve as much content as possible while using the content distribution network to bootstrap the content in the peer-to-peer network and using it as a fallback whenever the peer-to-peer network has insufficient bandwidth, insufficient quality or when the missing piece of video content in the video buffer of the client device has an immediate deadline.

主权项

1. A method for efficiently distributing video content, the method comprising:
requesting from a tracker unit to one of join an existing live streaming channel, join a video on demand streaming channel and join a video conference, wherein said tracker unit is configured to keep track of active peers in a peer-to-peer network; receiving a list of active peers participating in one of said live streaming channel, said video on demand streaming channel and said video conference from said tracker unit; connecting, by a processor, to a subset of peers in said list provided by said tracker unit to become neighbors in said peer-to-peer network; and receiving a missing piece of video content from one of said neighbors in said peer-to-peer network or from a content distribution network server based on where said missing piece of video content is to be stored in a video buffer; wherein said video buffer comprises a back buffer, a source protection window, an urgent window and a front buffer, wherein said back buffer comprises recently played pieces of video content, wherein said source protection window comprises pieces of video content whose deadlines are within a first number of pieces from a current play point, wherein said urgent window comprises a second number of pieces of video content after an end of said source protection window, wherein said front buffer comprises a third number of pieces of video content after an end of said urgent window.