Ericsson Ab

Telefonaktiebolaget Lm Ericsson (publ)

Ericsson Television Inc.

Idtp Holdings, Inc.

Jennifer Ann Reynolds

Chris Phillips

Robert Hammond Forsman

Charles Hammett Dasher

Bob Forsman

Steve Martin

Vishal Changrani

Mark Robertson

Kuheli Haldar

Carl Furgusson

Michael Huber

Paul Canter

Jimmie Rodgers

A system and method for effectuating fast channel change in an adaptive streaming environment. A plurality of adjacent channels may be predicted relative to a current streaming channel engaged by a client device. Upon prioritizing the adjacent channels, the client device may be configured to pre-fetch metadata and initialization information for a subset of the prioritized adjacent channels based on bandwidth conditions, video player buffer status, etc. When a channel is changed, the client device is operative to use the pre-fetched data to quickly obtain encoded media content at a select bitrate for rendering.

System and method for effectuating fast channel change in an adaptive streaming environment

A system and method for optimizing defragmentation of content in a content delivery network (CDN). In an example, a manifest available to the content delivery node with respect to a particular content as well as segment files stored in a database cache of the content delivery node are analyzed to determine if any segment files referenced by the manifest are absent from the database cache. If so, one or more delivery rules associated with the content delivery node based on historical ABR asset delivery patterns may be applied to determine representations of the absent segment files that satisfy the one or more delivery rules. After determining compliant representations of the absent segment files, they may be pulled from another content delivery node of the CDN (e.g., a parent node or an edge server node).

System and method for optimizing defragmentation of content in a content delivery network

A system and method for providing bitrate control for delivering media content to a plurality of virtual display (VD) screens presented in a virtual reality (VR) environment effectuated by a VR device of a subscriber based on detecting a movement in a point of view with respect the VD screens' placement within the VR environment, wherein each VD screen is configured to receive a media content channel. Responsive to detecting the movement, angular distance of each of the VD screens relative to a reference axis is computed. Weights to each of the media content channels may be assigned or updated based on the angular distance of the corresponding VD screens relative to the reference axis. Bandwidth of a managed bandwidth pipe may be (re)allocated based on the relative weights of the media content channels for delivering the media content channels to the subscriber's VR environment responsive to selecting single bitrates for the media channels according to a channel bandwidth annealing mechanism.

Bitrate control in a virtual reality (VR) environment

A system and method for providing bitrate control for delivering media content to a plurality of virtual display (VD) screens presented in a virtual reality (VR) environment effectuated by a VR device of a subscriber based on detecting a movement in a point of view with respect the VD screens' placement within the VR environment, wherein each VD screen is configured to receive a media content channel. Responsive to detecting the movement, angular distance of each of the VD screens relative to a reference axis is computed. Weights to each of the media content channels may be assigned or updated based on the angular distance of the corresponding VD screens relative to the reference axis. Media content channels on the VD screens outside the subscriber's field of view may be time-shifted. Bandwidth of a managed bandwidth pipe may be (re)allocated based on the relative weights of the non-time-shifted media content channels for delivering the media content channels to the subscriber's VR environment responsive to selecting single bitrates for the media channels according to a channel bandwidth annealing mechanism.

Bitrate control in virtual reality (VR) environments using time-shifting and unicast delivery

An Adaptive Bitrate (ABR) Quality of Experience (QoE) Management Unit manages bandwidth usage and QoE at a customer premises where multiple client devices independently download content from multiple providers. An overall virtual pipe to the premises includes a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) inner pipe, a non-HTTP inner pipe, an ABR inner pipe, and a non-ABR inner pipe. The Unit determines a data cap for a current billing cycle; and determines, based on policy management settings and the data cap for the current billing cycle, at least one of: a bandwidth cap for the overall virtual pipe, a bandwidth cap for the HTTP inner pipe, a bandwidth cap for the non-HTTP inner pipe, a bandwidth cap for the ABR inner pipe, and a bandwidth cap for the non-ABR inner pipe. Responsive to the determination of the bandwidth caps, the Unit throttles traffic within at least one of the inner pipes.

Bandwidth and ABR video QoE management based on OTT video providers and devices

A method of managing bandwidth allocation across a video pipe that delivers both streaming adaptive bitrate (ABR) content and progressive download ABR content includes receiving a designation of a congestion boundary within a video pipe, the congestion boundary designating a first percentage of the video pipe that is to be used for streaming ABR content when congestion exists on both sides of the congestion boundary, wherein a remaining percentage of the video pipe is to be used for progressive download ABR; allocating bandwidth for streaming ABR content, wherein the gateway device can allocate for streaming content only that portion of the remaining percentage of bandwidth that is not requested for progressive download content; and allocating bandwidth for progressive download content, wherein the gateway device can allocate for progressive download content only that portion of the first percentage of bandwidth that is not requested for streaming content.

Merging multicast ABR and unicast ABR with progressive download ABR in a customer premises device within the same video delivery pipe

A recording device and a method are described herein that provide a network-based personal video recording service utilizing adaptive bit rate technology for a plurality of users. In operation, the recording device records at a minimum a single bit rate (one set of segmented files) of the broadcast content within each user's network personal video recorder storage unit. Plus, the recording device stores the other bit rates (remaining sets of segmented files) in a central storage location or some other storage location.

Recording device and method for efficient network personal video recorder manipulation through adaptive bit rate streaming

A system, apparatus, and method for controlling data usage at a customer premises. A gateway configured as a single point of entry receives all data entering the premises. All data usage by client devices within the premises is monitored. A DataCap Management Unit adjusts a premises bandwidth cap throughout a billing cycle to prevent the data usage from exceeding a data cap before the billing cycle ends.

System, apparatus, and method providing data cap avoidance

A scheme for managing delivery of segmented media content in an ABR network, wherein bitrates of a manifest file may be selectively modified or removed based on a client device's video buffer characteristics. An ABR stream delivery server is operative to simulate the client device's video buffer in a streaming session and accordingly modify the manifest files to include metadata for media segments encoded at a particular single bitrate responsive to the buffer performance and other network conditions. Responsive to monitoring the video buffer characteristics of the media player during the streaming session, a selected single bitrate may be moved up or down to other bitrates of the manifest files.

System and method for managing ABR bitrate delivery responsive to video buffer characteristics of a client

A system, apparatus, and method for controlling data usage at a customer premises. A gateway configured as a single point of entry receives all data entering the premises. A DataCap Management Unit monitors all data usage by client devices within the premises and uses either a linear regression model or a historical usage alpha-generation method to analyze data usage patterns at the premises and to predict future data usage at the premises for a current billing cycle. The DataCap Management Unit dynamically adjusts a premises bandwidth cap throughout the current billing cycle, using the predicted future data usage as an input, to smoothly keep actual total data usage for the current billing cycle from exceeding a data cap before the current billing cycle ends.

Smart data cap avoidance with personalized predictions based on linear regression or historical usage alpha-generation patterns

An adaptive streaming server, a method, and a system are described herein that create a content stream to be delivered to one or more clients by segmenting the content into data structures which are stored in random access memory (volatile storage) rather than segmenting the content into segment files which are stored on a disk or database (non-volatile storage).

Growing community of inventors

Duluth, GA, United States of America

Jennifer Ann Reynolds