Gateway-based video client-proxy sub-system for managed delivery of A/V content using fragmented method in a stateful system
Systems and methods can provide a gateway-based video client proxy subsystem for managing delivery of segmented video in a stateful system. Such systems can operating to provide segmented video streams client devices via customer premise gateway devices. The system can receive state information from the customer premise gateway devices for use in managing network resources associated transmitting with the segmented video streams, and deriving allocations of bandwidth to flows associated with the client devices based upon the state information received from the customer premise gateway devices.
1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
providing segmented video streams to a plurality of client devices via one or more customer premise gateway devices, the segmented video streams comprising multiple content file fragments and one or more manifest files respectively associated with the segmented video streams, wherein each respective one of the one or more customer premise gateway devices is located within a customer premise and is associated with one or more of the plurality of client devices;
gathering, at each respective one customer premise gateway device of the one or more customer premise gateway devices, state information comprising buffer status information of audio/video players associated with the one or more client devices that are associated with the respective customer premise gateway device;
outputting the state information from each respective one customer premise gateway device of the one or more customer premise gateway devices to a stateful server scheduler as one or more beacons;
receiving, at the stateful server scheduler, the one or more beacons carrying state information from one or more of the customer premise gateway devices for use in managing network resources associated with transmitting the segmented video streams;
storing the one or more beacons at the stateful server scheduler for use in deriving static and dynamic allocations of bandwidth to flows associated with the client devices; and
deriving static and dynamic allocations of bandwidth to flows associated with each of the plurality of client devices, wherein the allocation of bandwidth to one or more flows associated with each respective one of the plurality of client devices is based upon the buffer status information of the audio/video player associated with the respective client device and the buffer status information of the audio/video player associated with at least one other client device of the plurality of client devices.
2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein state information comprises: a depth associated with a client play-out buffer; maximum depth associated with the client play-out buffer; transfer rate of a previous downloaded segment; available quality levels; quality level currently in use by the client; video players estimation of available inbound bandwidth; percentage of past dropped frames; location of client device on a home network; round trip delay; maximum client screen resolution; content play-out time from beginning of session; or segment sequence number of currently played segment.
3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
assigning priorities to the flows based upon the state information included in the collected beacons.
4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein providing segmented video streams to one or more client devices comprises:
providing a manifest file associated with a requested stream, the manifest file referencing a plurality of content fragments associated with the requested stream; and
repeatedly retrieving and forwarding a requested subset of content fragments associated with the requested stream and forwarding the requested subset of content fragments to the user upon receiving requests for the respective content fragments.
5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the method is provided within one of a cable modem termination system, a digital subscriber line access multiplexer or a fiber to the home optical line termination.
6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the method is provided within a switched digital video environment.
7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the method is provided within an internet protocol television environment.
8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein state information comprises a depth associated with a client play-out buffer and a maximum depth associated with the client play-out buffer.
9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein state information comprises a transfer rate of a previously downloaded segment.
10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein state information comprises available quality levels and a quality level currently in use by the client device.
11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein state information comprises a video player estimation of available inbound bandwidth.
12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein state information comprises a percentage of previously transmitted frames associated with the client device that were dropped.
13. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein state information comprises a location of the client device on a home network.
14. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein state information comprises round trip delay associated with delivery of a segment.
15. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein state information comprises a maximum resolution that the client device is configured to display.
16. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein state information comprises content play-out time from beginning of a session.
17. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein state information comprises a segment sequence number of a currently played segment.
18. A customer premise gateway device comprising:
one or more processors and memory, wherein, according to instructions of one or more non-transitory computer readable media, the one or more processors and memory control the following components of the customer premise gateway device:
an upstream monitor operable to filter and record upstream communications state information that is intercepted while being delivered from a plurality of client devices to a content delivery system;
a downstream monitor operable to filter and record downstream communications state information that is intercepted while being delivered from the content delivery system to the plurality of client devices;
one or more interfaces configured to be used to provide segmented video streams to the plurality of client devices, the segmented video streams comprising multiple content file fragments and one or more manifest files respectively associated with the segmented video streams;
wherein the upstream communications state information and the downstream communications state information comprises buffer status information of audio/video players associated with the plurality of client devices; and
a beacon generator operable to receive the recorded upstream and downstream communications and communicate the upstream and downstream communications state information to a stateful server scheduler that allocates bandwidth to flows associated with each of the one or more client devices, the upstream and downstream communications state information being used by the stateful server scheduler to manage network resources associated with transmitting the segmented video streams, wherein the allocation of bandwidth to one or more flows associated with each respective one of the plurality of client devices is based upon the upstream and downstream communications state information associated with the respective client device and the upstream and downstream communications state information associated with at least one other client device of the plurality of client devices.