Amazon Technologies, Inc.

Nicholas James Benson

Stefan Christian Richter

Marc Joliveau

Kenneth Thomas Burford

Amarsingh Buckthasingh Winston

Li Tong

Justin Michael Binns

Lei Li

James Marvin Freeman, Ii

Srikanth Kiran Kotagiri

Euan McLeod

Yongjun Wu

Charles Benjamin Franklin Waggoner

Andrew Stuart Glass

Joshua B Barnard

Gregory Scott Benjamin

Rakesh Tangirala

Michael Robert Starr

Techniques are described for adjusting parameter settings for bitrate selection algorithms for different segments of a population of devices streaming content. Streaming sessions are identified according to session characteristics. Within each segment of sessions, control parameter settings are sent to devices corresponding to a subset of each segment. Test parameter settings are sent to devices corresponding to another subset of each segment. If the test parameter settings result in better playback performance relative to the control parameter settings, the test parameter settings become the new control parameter settings, and new test parameter settings are generated.

Adjusting parameter settings for bitrate selection algorithms

Techniques are described for server-side fragment insertion and delivery of media content. After receiving a request to play back media content, a manifest is generated that includes fragments associated with the requested media content and fragments associated with different media content. A client device requests fragments from a media server according to the manifest, and the media server provides the correct fragment in response to the request.

Server-side fragment insertion and delivery

Techniques are described for switching streaming of media content between content delivery networks (CDNs) during mid-stream. An initial CDN can be used to stream the media content. The performance of a second CDN can be measured by requesting a fragment of the media content as a measurement or test fragment. Streaming of the media content can be switched to the second CDN if its performance is determined to be better than the initial CDN.

Mid-stream content delivery network switching

Techniques are described for adjusting parameter settings for bitrate selection algorithms for devices streaming media content. Control parameter settings are selected for playback of first media content. Test parameter settings are selected for playback of second media content. If the test parameter settings result in better playback performance relative to the control parameter settings, the test parameter settings become the new control parameter settings.

Techniques are described for balancing traffic among content delivery networks (CDNs). A CDN balancer can analyze CDN performance data and determine CDN balancing ratios used to distribute traffic among the CDNs.

Content delivery network balancer

Techniques for delivering live streaming content are described by which a streaming heuristic is selected based on the delay between the live and client playheads. For live content for which the delay is short, a low latency streaming heuristic is selected which is designed to handle live content streams for which only a few seconds of content can be buffered. For live content for which the delay is longer, a higher latency streaming heuristic is selected which is designed to handle streams for which the delay is sufficient to build a buffer of content fragments.

Heuristics for streaming live content

Techniques are described for live streaming media content using on-demand manifests. Many manifest files providing playback options for different time periods of a live stream of media content can be generated and provided to viewer devices. Requests from viewer devices using the manifest files can be analyzed to determine a fragment to be provided for playback in relation to the time period of the live stream to be provided for playback.

Live streaming media content using on-demand manifests

Methods and apparatus are described for implementing a communication channel between a client device and a content distribution network (CDN) during playback of media content. The communication channel can be used by a client device to provide the CDN information pertaining to fragments the client device anticipates requesting from the CDN, as well as by the CDN to provide feedback to the client device regarding whether it is likely that the CDN will be able to satisfy the anticipated requests. The CDN can perform various operations based, at least in part, upon the information it receives from the client device.

Communication channel between device and CDN during playback

Techniques are described for generating manifest files for media content playback. A server can dynamically generate manifest files with a selection of quality levels indicated as being available for playback. Factors such as device characteristics, playback history, and more can be used to generate the manifest files.

Dynamic manifests for media content playback

Techniques are described for live streaming media content using on-demand manifests. A manifest file providing playback options for a portion of the duration of the playback of a live stream can be provided to viewer devices. The viewer devices can also be provided location identifiers for the live stream. Based on the location identifier used by the viewer devices to request fragments of the live stream of the media content, the requests from the viewer devices using the manifest file can be analyzed to determine a fragment to be provided for playback in relation to the time period of the live stream.

Techniques are described caching media content. The caching can provide the same cached media content to multiple requests based on different protocols.

Caching for multi-protocol media content delivery

Techniques are described for caching dynamic objects for media content playback. A media server can provide a cache key representing a set of instructions used to select a subset of manifest data. The cache key can be provided to a viewer device, which can then contact a content delivery network (CDN) for a dynamic manifest file corresponding to the cache key. The CDN can contact the media server to have the dynamic manifest file generated using the cache key if it is not in its cache.

Growing community of inventors

Seattle, WA, United States of America

Nicholas James Benson