Content distribution system and method

Active Publication Date: 2017-06-06
BRITISH TELECOMM PLC
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  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0011]The method can enable efficient delivery of content to a user, destination or host over a network. The use of multiple multicast streams makes efficient use of network bandwidth and enables the user to receive the relevant data quickly.

Problems solved by technology

Delivery of significant volumes of data to multiple users, or end hosts, can impose a significant burden on a network.
However, there may be whole sections of a network in which there is no receiver who wishes to obtain the data so broadcasting data to these network portions wastes network bandwidth.
However, this can result in large amounts of replicated content being transmitted over the network, which again can cause congestion in the network and affect reliability and Quality of Service (QoS) for other data being transmitted in the network.
The delivery of on-demand content poses a particular problem, however, since multiple users may request the same content at different times and each user may wish to pause or rewind the content stream during playback of the media.
However, unicasting of all content is undesirable in most networks since it results in significant replication of the content transmitted over the network and consumes large amounts of network bandwidth.
There are difficulties in using multicast delivery techniques to deliver on-demand content to several end hosts; for example, the multicast stream cannot be paused or rewound for a single user wishing to join the stream at a later stage, as might be the case in uptake of on-demand content.
This might result in the new host having to set up and receive a unicast stream for the content, no matter how little ahead in time the multicast stream might be from the start of the piece of content.

Method used

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  • Content distribution system and method
  • Content distribution system and method
  • Content distribution system and method

Examples

Experimental program
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Example

[0033]As set out above, aspects of the system described herein create multiple time-staggered multicast streams for the same piece of content. In some embodiments, the source uses intelligent data analytics to decide which hosts should subscribe to which of those (one or more) multicast streams. The source can then trigger subscription of the hosts to the chosen streams. The hosts re-assemble the multiple streams which provide data from different starting points, and leave multicast trees once they no longer receive unreplicated content from that tree. This affects host-to-group membership and also results in better use of network resources by minimising the number of unicast streams in the network for a piece of content. Embodiments of each of the elements set out above are now described in more detail, but an embodiment of a network in which the present system may be implemented is first described.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PRESENT EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS

[0034]In the following description,

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PUM

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Abstract

There are described methods and systems for distributing content in a network, in particular a multicast network. One method includes delivering content from a source to a destination in a content delivery network. A request for an item of content is received and a first multicast stream is identified or established, the first multicast stream comprising a first copy of the content. At least one second multicast stream is also identified or established, the second stream comprising a second copy of the content. The second copy of the content is time-shifted by a time, M, from corresponding portions of the first copy of the content. The content is then delivered to the destination using both the first and the second multicast streams.

Description

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Claims

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Application Information

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Owner BRITISH TELECOMM PLC
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