Cisco Technology, Inc.

Cabletron Systems, Inc.

Carol Etta Iturralde

Jean-Philippe Vasseur

Eric Colin Friedrich

Robert Goguen

Matthew Francis Caulfield

Anna Charny

Scott C Labrozzi

Muthurajah Sivabalan

Joshua B Gahm

William C Ver Steeg

John Pickens

Mahesh Viveganandhan

Kapil Sharma

Anne K McCormick

Matt Caulfield

David R Oran

George Swallow

Zafar Ali

Bruce Stuart Davie

Frederick Juergens Baker

Gareth John Bowen

Samie Beheydt

Keith Millar

Peter De Vriendt

Michael V DiBiasio

Anca Zamfir

Henk Derudder

Mark D McBride

Kevin Scott Kirkup

Elisheva Hochberg

Roger Levesque

Ramesh Uppili

Robert James Goguen

Jean Philippe Vasseur

Matthew F Caufield

Kevin S Kirkup

John Robert Pickens

Jean-Phillippe Vasseur

Synchronized source selection for adaptive bitrate (ABR) encoders may be provided. First, a first adaptive transport stream (ATS) that is aligned with a second ATS produced by a second device may be provided from a first source by a first device. The first device may be fed from the first source. Next, an indication that the second device switched from being fed from the first source to being fed from a second source may be received. In response to receiving the indication, the first device may be switched from being fed from the first source to being fed from the second source. The first ATS that is aligned with the second ATS produced by the second device may then be produced from the second source by the first device.

Synchronized source selection for adaptive bitrate (ABR) encoders

A system can include a reconciliation engine configured to evaluate metadata in a given manifest file of a plurality of manifest files generated for redundant copies of a given media asset. The metadata describes a condition of a given chunk of media content in one of the redundant copies of the given media asset. The system can also include a manifest modification function configured to modify the given manifest file for the given chunk of media content in response to the reconciliation engine detecting that the given chunk of media content is damaged based on the evaluation of the metadata associated with the given chunk of media content in the given manifest file.

Reconciling redundant copies of media content

A method is provided in one example embodiment and includes generating a key associated with a virtual asset associated with content to be provided to a client device, where the key indicates at least one parameter for accessing the content; generating the virtual asset; receiving a request for the content; identifying a format being requested for the content; using the virtual asset to identify common format content to be retrieved and to identify the key; using the key to retrieve the common format content; and transforming the common format content such that it can be delivered to the client device in the format that was requested.

Virtual assets for on-demand content generation

In one embodiment of the present invention, an HLS transcoder inserts a plurality of encoder boundary points (EBPs) into an HLS formatted content item, a processor places hints about locations of the inserted EBPs, and an inputter inputs the HLS formatted content item into an on-demand encapsulation process. Related systems, apparatus and methods are also described.

Efficient on-demand generation of ABR manifests

A method is provided in one example and includes receiving media content including timed metadata, generating a common format asset including the timed metadata and a timed metadata index including at least one reference point corresponding to the common format asset. Each reference point includes state context information of the timed metadata at a particular instance of time. The method may further include receiving a request for the timed metadata from a particular client device, and retrieving a determined amount of the timed metadata from the common format asset using the timed metadata index. In a particular example, the determined amount of the timed metadata is an amount sufficient to display a current timed metadata context corresponding to the request.

On-demand encapsulating of timed metadata in a network environment

In one embodiment a method, system, and apparatus is described for providing multimedia content from a server to a plurality of media devices, the method including providing a computing device an HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) playlist for playing in an adaptive bitrate client, the playlist including a list of at least two segments, each of the segments having an associated duration field, for each segment in the playlist, assigning a timestamp which is equal to the sum the durations of each previous segment in the playlist, calculating a calculated duration of the playlist by subtracting a time stamp of the first segment in the playlist from the time stamp of the last segment in the playlist, determining a real duration of the playlist by subtracting a first presentation time stamp (PTS) of the first segment in the playlist from the last presentation time stamp (PTS) of the last segment in the playlist, computing a playlist drift by subtracting the calculated duration of the playlist from the real duration of the playlist, determining a correction factor by dividing the playlist drift by the number of segments in the playlist, and calculating a new timestamp for each segment in the playlist by adding the correction factor to the time stamp of the segment. Related methods, systems, and apparatus are also described.

Method for enabling use of HLS as a common intermediate format

A method is provided in one example and includes determining an occurrence of an exception to a predetermined cadence associated with an input stream of a profile, determining a shifted cadence based, at least in part, on the exception, receiving an indication of a key frame in the profile, determining that the key frame aligns with the shifted cadence, designating the key frame as a boundary point based, at least in part, on the shifted cadence, and communicating the boundary point.

System and method for locating a boundary point within adaptive bitrate conditioned content

A method is provided in one example and includes receiving first synchronization information associated with a first encapsulated output, receiving second synchronization information associated with a second encapsulated output, and determining whether the first encapsulated output and the second encapsulated output are in synchronization based upon the first synchronization information and the second synchronization information. The method may further include, when the first encapsulated output and the second encapsulated output are determined to out of synchronization, generating corrected synchronization information, and sending the corrected synchronization information to an encapsulator generating at least one of the first encapsulated output and the second encapsulated output.

Producing equivalent content across encapsulators in a network environment

In one embodiment, a method includes assigning at a server, priority levels to channels associated with video broadcast content, transmitting the assigned priority levels to a network device transmitting the video broadcast content to receivers, and updating the assigned priority levels based on channel information received at the server. A policy is applied to the video broadcast content based on the assigned priority levels when network congestion occurs. An apparatus is also disclosed herein.

Video content priority aware congestion management

A technique dynamically restores original attributes of a Traffic Engineering Label Switched Path (TE-LSP) that are provided in a source domain for a destination domain when traversing one or more intermediate domains that may translate the TE-LSP attributes in a computer network. According to the novel technique, a head-end node requests an interdomain TE-LSP having one or more original TE-LSP attributes (e.g., priority, bandwidth, etc.) using a signaling exchange. The head-end node may also request restoration of the original TE-LSP attributes upon entrance into the destination domain. Intermediate domains (e.g., border routers of the domains) receiving the request may translate the original TE-LSP attributes into corresponding intermediate domain TE-LSP attributes. When the request reaches the destination domain, the intermediate domain TE-LSP attributes of the requested TE-LSP are restored into the original TE-LSP attributes.

Technique for dynamically restoring original TE-LSP attributes for interdomain TE-LSPs

In one embodiment, a hierarchical tunnel that encapsulates a plurality of child tunnels along a shared path segment is used. The shared path segment extends from a head-end node across one or more intermediate nodes to a tail-end node. A state of a child tunnel of the plurality of child tunnels encapsulated within the hierarchical tunnel is refreshed by the head-end node sending one or more refresh messages along the child tunnel that include a request that the one or more intermediate nodes remove the state of the child tunnel without sending error messages, and sending one or more encapsulated refresh messages within the hierarchical tunnel that cause the tail-end node to continue propagation of refresh messages along the child tunnel.

Dynamically and efficiently forming hierarchical tunnels

In one embodiment, a node (e.g., a grooming node) determines a set of attribute groups (AGs) of existing child tunnels through the network, where an AG is a group of one or more compatible attributes among child tunnels, e.g., excluding bandwidth. The grooming node also determines a set of corresponding child tunnels that belong to a particular AG and that follow a shared path segment through the network, and may establish an hierarchical tunnel that encapsulates the set of corresponding child tunnels along the shared path segment. In another embodiment, a node requests that the one or more intermediate nodes of the hierarchical tunnel each remove the state of a child tunnel without sending any error messages, and sends refresh messages encapsulated within the hierarchical tunnel in a manner that allows a tail-end node to continue any necessary propagation of refresh messages along the child tunnel.

In one embodiment, a method includes requesting accelerated delivery of a specified media stream. The media stream contains a plurality of video frames. The method also includes receiving a response to the accelerated delivery request. The method also includes selecting, based on the response, a media stream source. The method also includes receiving a media stream from the selected media stream source into a buffer, and decoding the received media stream from the buffer, at a selected playout rate.

Systems and methods of adaptive playout of delayed media streams

Systems and methods for distinguishing a node failure from a link failure are provided. By strengthening the assumption of independent failures, bandwidth sharing among backup tunnels protecting links and nodes of a network is facilitated as well as distributed computation of backup tunnel placement. Thus a backup tunnel overlay network can provide guaranteed bandwidth in the event of a failure.

Distinguishing between link and node failure to facilitate fast reroute

A technique is provided for one or more network nodes to deterministically select data flows to preempt. In particular, each node employs a set of predefined rules which instructs the node as to which existing data flow should be preempted in order to admit a new high-priority data flow. The rules are precisely defined and are common to all nodes configured in accordance with the present invention. Illustratively, a network node not only selects a data flow to preempt, but additionally may identify other 'fate sharing' data flows that may be preempted. As used herein, a group of data flows has a fate-sharing relationship if the application instance(s) containing the data flows functions adequately only when all the fate-shared flows are operational. In a first illustrative embodiment, after a data flow in a fate-sharing group is preempted, network nodes may safely tear down the group's remaining data flows. In a second illustrative embodiment, when a data flow is preempted, all its fate-shared data flows are marked as being 'at risk.' Because the at-risk flows are not immediately torn down, it is less likely that resources allocated for the at-risk flows may be freed then subsequently used to establish relatively lower-priority data flows instead of relatively higher-priority data flows.

Growing community of inventors

Framingham, MA, United States of America

Carol Etta Iturralde