System and method to support different ingest and delivery schemes for a content delivery network

1. A method comprising:

receiving streaming media data, the streaming media data comprising a first plurality of alternative content fragments, a second plurality of alternative content fragments, and a single media description file comprising metadata describing both the first plurality of alternative content fragments and the second plurality of alternative content fragments, wherein the first plurality of alternative content fragments and the second plurality of alternative content fragments carry alternative versions of the same media content,

wherein the first plurality of alternative content fragments comprise a series of leading content fragments having a fixed time duration followed by a trailing content fragment having a variable time duration,

wherein each content fragment in the first plurality of alternative content fragments corresponds to one or more alternative content fragments in the second plurality of alternative content fragments, and

wherein the first plurality of alternative content fragments and the second plurality of alternative content fragments carry the same media content at different bit rates.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving streaming media data comprises receiving streaming media data from one or more servers.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the streaming media data is in a uniform format.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the streaming media data comprises video fragments and audio fragments.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first plurality of alternative content fragments comprise a series of leading content fragments having a fixed time duration followed by a trailing content fragment having a variable time duration.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising processing the first plurality of alternative content fragments to produce streaming media content of a particular configuration.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising transmitting the streaming media content to a network interface.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein each content fragment in the first plurality of alternative content fragments corresponds to one or more alternative content fragments in the second plurality of alternative content fragments.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the first plurality of alternative content fragments and the second plurality of alternative content fragments carry the same media content at different bit rates.

10. A method comprising:

receiving source media content; and

processing the source media content to produce streaming media data, the streaming media data comprising a first plurality of alternative content fragments, a second plurality of alternative content fragments, and a single media description file comprising metadata describing both the first plurality of alternative content fragments and the second plurality of alternative content fragments, wherein the first plurality of alternative content fragments and the second plurality of alternative content fragments carry alternative versions of the same media content,

wherein the first plurality of alternative content fragments comprise a series of leading content fragments having a fixed time duration followed by a trailing content fragment having a variable time duration,

wherein each content fragment in the first plurality of alternative content fragments corresponds to one or more alternative content fragments in the second plurality of alternative content fragments, and

wherein the first plurality of alternative content fragments and the second plurality of alternative content fragments carry the same media content at different bit rates.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising transmitting the streaming media data to one or more edge servers.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein processing the source media content comprises:

separating the source media content into audio media content and video media content; and

transcoding the audio media content and video media content into a uniform format;

fragmenting the video media content into video fragments; and

fragmenting the audio media content into audio fragments.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the audio fragments are aligned in time with the video fragments.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein transcoding the audio media content and video media content into the uniform format comprises:

transcoding the audio media content into an AAC format; and

transcoding the video media content into a H.264 format.

15. The method of claim 10 , wherein processing the source media content comprises:

separating the source media content into audio media content and video media content;

segmenting the video media content into video fragments;

transcoding the audio media content into a uniform audio format;

transcoding the video fragments into a uniform video format; and

segmenting the audio media content into audio fragments, the audio fragments temporally corresponding with the video fragments.

16. A server system comprising:

an input port; and

a processor configured to:

receive a streaming media data from an input port, the streaming media data comprising a first plurality of alternative content fragments, a second plurality of alternative content fragments, and a single media description file, wherein the single media description file comprises metadata describing both the first plurality of alternative content fragments and the second plurality of alternative content fragments, and wherein the first plurality of alternative content fragments and the second plurality of alternative content fragments carry alternative versions of the same media content;

process the streaming media data to produce streaming media content of a particular configuration; and

transmit the streaming media content to a media client,

wherein the first plurality of alternative content fragments comprise a series of leading content fragments having a fixed time duration followed by a trailing content fragment having a variable time duration,

wherein each content fragment in the first plurality of alternative content fragments corresponds to one or more alternative content fragments in the second plurality of alternative content fragments, and

wherein the first plurality of alternative content fragments and the second plurality of alternative content fragments carry the same media content at different bit rates.

17. The server of claim 16 , wherein streaming media data comprises video fragments and audio fragments.

18. The server of claim 16 , further comprising a cache, wherein the processor is further configured to store the first plurality of alternative content fragments and the second plurality of alternative content fragments in the cache.

19. The method of claim 1 , further comprising storing the first plurality of alternative content fragments and the second plurality of content fragments in a cache.

20. An apparatus comprising:

an input port; and

a processor configured to:

receive a streaming media data from an input port, the streaming media data comprising a first plurality of alternative content fragments, a second plurality of alternative content fragments, and a single media description file, wherein the single media description file comprises metadata describing both the first plurality of alternative content fragments and the second plurality of alternative content fragments, wherein the first plurality of alternative content fragments and the second plurality of alternative content fragments carry alternative versions of the same media content,

wherein the first plurality of alternative content fragments comprise a series of leading content fragments having a fixed time duration followed by a trailing content fragment having a variable time duration,

wherein each content fragment in the first plurality of alternative content fragments corresponds to one or more alternative content fragments in the second plurality of alternative content fragments, and

wherein the first plurality of alternative content fragments and the second plurality of alternative content fragments carry the same media content at different bit rates.

21. The apparatus of claim 20 , wherein the apparatus is a media client.