Mobitv, Inc.

Amazon Technologies, Inc.

Dag Henriksson

Kent Karlsson

Martin Linderoth

Ola Hallmarker

Ulf Windisch

Lars Olsson

Niklas Westin

Yongjun Wu

Hai Wei

Ola Hållmarker

Gabriel Netterdag

Ola Hällmarker

Methods and apparatus are described for delivering streams of media content in ways that smooth out the peaks that might otherwise occur due to the bit rate variations that result from encoding of the media content. This is accomplished by controlling the timing of the transmission of packets of the encoded media content.

Smoothing bit rate variations in the distribution of media content

A media feed is received and delineated into groups of pictures (GOPs) for processing into output media streams having different quality levels. The media feed needs only to be decoded once. The decoded stream is split along different paths based on resolution, and resized output media data is sent to multiple encoders and fragmenters to generate variants in bit rate and frame rate for each resolution. The generated variants may be maintained as fragments on shared storage. A particular stream corresponding to a particular variant can be reconstructed using the encoded fragments.

Enhanced group of pictures (GOP) alignment in media stream variants

A distributed and scalable content streaming architecture includes a plurality of controllers and a plurality of servers. The controllers are operable to establish Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) sessions with individual devices. A controller selects a server to provide a requested media stream to a device. The server may be selected based on its proximity to the device, bandwidth availability, or latency characteristics. The server transmits the media stream using a Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP) and/or a Real-Time Control Protocol (RTCP). A controller can manage a number of sessions many times greater than the number of streams a server can provide, so a controller typically has access to multiple servers. Additional servers can be added to a system without disrupting system operation.

Distributed and scalable content streaming architecture

A content server is configured to buffer and transmit numerous live media streams to individual devices. The content server analyzes characteristics associated with the live media streams to determine timing and sequence number information. Other characteristics such as network congestion metrics, device buffer usage metrics, etc., can also be evaluated. Combined peak transmission times are determined to allow packets designated for transmission at a bandwidth usage peak to be transmitted earlier in time. Earlier packets are shifted even earlier as sequence numbers allow. This evens out bandwidth usage rates and allows improved live media stream transmission.

Network optimized distribution

Mechanisms are provided to detect device client capabilities associated with screen size, video and audio codec support, bandwidth limitations, and memory limitations. A content server can intelligently select a media stream for transmission to the device using the client capability information for the device. In some instances, the content server presents prioritized selections to a user and the user can choose the optimal media stream.

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Spänga, Sweden

Dag Henriksson