Conviva Inc.

Karthik K Lakshminarayanan

Aditya Ravikumar Ganjam

Ion Stoica

Hui Joyce Zhang

Jibin Zhan

Ryan J Huebsch

Ningning Hu

George C Necula

Hui Zhang

Facilitating a decision of a content player is disclosed. In some cases, performance information associated with a content player is received. The information is received from a client. A determination is made that an update should be sent to the client. The update is sent to the client. In other cases, information is received from an external entity. Based at least in part on the received information, an instruction is sent to a content player.

Facilitating client decisions

Monitoring performance data associated with a content player is disclosed. Information relating to the state of a content player is obtained on a time driven basis. At least a portion of the obtained information is reported, via a communications interface, to a content distribution monitoring server.

Monitoring the performance of a content player

Delivering a video stream is disclosed. A request for the video stream is received. A past portion of the video stream is delivered to a client. The past portion has a marker time that precedes a current time by an interval that corresponds to a buffer length in a client buffer. Receiving a video stream is also disclosed. A request for the video stream is transmitted. A past portion of the video stream is received. The received past portion has a marker time that precedes a current time by an interval that corresponds to a buffer length in a client buffer.

Delivering a video stream

Detecting a problem in a content distribution is disclosed. Performance information associated with a first content player is received form a first client. Performance information associated with a second content player is received from a second client. The information received from the first client and the second client is aggregated. A determination is made, from the aggregated information, that a problem is indicated. Alternate techniques for detecting a problem in a content distribution are also disclosed.

Growing community of inventors

San Mateo, CA, United States of America

Karthik K Lakshminarayanan