Method and apparatus for a fault resilient collaborative media serving array
Embodiments of the present invention provide methods, systems, and apparatuses for a fault resilient collaborative media serving array comprising a plurality of nodes. In one embodiment, the present invention provides a method for creating a fault resilient collaborative media serving array where the array nodes do not share memory, the serving of a content file is accomplished by the collaborative efforts of many nodes in the array, and where there is no fixed allocation of sessions to nodes.
1. A method for recovering from fault in a content serving array comprising at least a first node, a second node, and a third node, the method comprising:
partitioning content into an ordered list of parts comprising at least a first part and a second part;
allocating the first part to the first node;
allocating the second part to the second node;
sending the content successively and chronologically in-order as an ordered stream of parts corresponding to the ordered list by:
indicating to the first node that it should send the first part to a client device;
failing to receive by the second node an indication that the first node has sent the first part to the client device;
indicating to the third node that it should send the first part to the client device;
sending by the third node the first part to the client device; and
sending by the second node the second part to the client device.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the indicating to the first node comprises indicating to the first node that it should send the first part to the user by sending a token to the first node.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the indicating to the first node comprises indicating to the first node that it should send the first part to the user by using a common time reference.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the failing comprises failing to receive at the second node, within a predetermined time, a token indicating that the first node has sent the first part to the client device.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the indicating to the third node comprises indicating to the third node that it should send the first part to the user by sending a token to the third node.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the indicating to the third node comprises indicating to the third node that it should send the first part to the user by using a common time reference.
7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining independently by the second node that the third node should send the first part to the client device.
8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining by a broker that the third node should send the first part to the client device.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the third node is the second node.
10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising reallocating the first part to the third node.
11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the client device buffers at least some of the received content.
12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the client device presents received parts in the order that they are received.
13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the client device is not aware that the content is being delivered from more than one node.
14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the nodes do not share memory.
15. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one part includes trick content for implementing trick mode playback.
16. The method of claim 1 , further comprising allocating the parts among the first node, the second node, and the third node using a deterministic algorithm.
17. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of allocating the parts among the first node, the second node, and the third node using a non-deterministic algorithm.