METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PLAYING MULTICAST OVER-THE-TOP (OTT) CONTENT STREAMS
A method and system for multicast transmission of OTT streams to players that do not support multicast format are provided. The method includes establishing a transmission control protocol (TCP) connection with a media player; establishing a user datagram protocol (UDP) connection with a multicast delivery server (MDS); receiving an OTT content stream in a multicast streaming format via the UDP connection; reformatting the received multicast OTT content stream into a unicast stream; and delivering the unicast stream via the TCP connection to the media player, wherein the unicast stream is a streaming format supported by the media player.
1 . A method for playing over-the-top (OTT) content streams, comprising:
establishing a transmission control protocol (TCP) connection with a media player;
establishing a user datagram protocol (UDP) connection with a multicast delivery server (MDS);
receiving an OTT content stream in a multicast streaming format via the UDP connection;
reformatting the received multicast OTT content stream into a unicast stream; and
delivering the unicast stream via the TCP connection to the media player, wherein the unicast stream is a streaming format supported by the media player.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the TCP connection is established using a streaming protocol that the media player communicates with an OTT content server.
3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the multicast streaming format is any one of: hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) objects over UDP and real-time streaming protocol (RTSP).
4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the unicast streaming format is any one of: real-time messaging (RTMP) protocol and a HTTP live streaming (HLS) protocol.
5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the transition from the multicast streaming format to the unicast streaming format is seamless to the media player.
6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the method is performed by a proxy communicatively connected to the media player.
7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the proxy is operable in a user equipment device hosting the media player.
8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the received OTT content stream is any one of: a replicated OTT content stream, a live OTT content stream, and a linear OTT content stream.
9 . A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions for causing one or more processing units to execute the method according to claim 1 .
10 . A system for playing over-the-top (OTT) content in a multicast streaming format, comprising:
a processor; and
a memory communicatively connected to the processor, the memory containing instructions that, when executed by the processor, configure the system to:
establish a transmission control protocol (TCP) connection with a media player;
establish a user datagram protocol (UDP) connection with a multicast delivery server (MDS);
receive an OTT content stream in a multicast streaming format via the UDP connection;
reformat the received multicast OTT content stream into a unicast stream; and
deliver the unicast stream via the TCP connection to the media player, wherein the unicast stream is a streaming format supported by the media player.
11 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the TCP connection is established using a streaming protocol that the media player communicates with an OTT content server.
12 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the multicast streaming format is any one of: hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) objects over UDP and real-time streaming protocol (RTSP).
13 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the unicast streaming format is any one of: real-time messaging (RTMP) protocol and a HTTP live streaming (HLS) protocol.
14 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the transition from the multicast streaming format to the unicast streaming format is seamless to the media player.
15 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the method is performed by a proxy communicatively connected to the media player.
16 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the proxy is operable in a user equipment device hosting the media player.
17 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the received OTT content stream is any one of: a replicated OTT content stream, a live OTT content stream, and a linear OTT content stream.
18 . A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions for causing one or more processing units to execute the method according to claim 1 .
19 . A communication terminal, comprising:
a display;
a processing unit; and
a memory, the memory containing instructions that, when executed by the processing unit, configure the terminal to:
establish a transmission control protocol (TCP) connection with a media player;
establish a user datagram protocol (UDP) connection with a multicast delivery server (MDS);
receive an OTT content stream in a multicast streaming format via the UDP connection;
reformat the received multicast OTT content stream into a unicast stream; and
deliver the unicast stream via the TCP connection to the media player, wherein the unicast stream is a streaming format supported by the media player, thereby enabling the media player to display the contents of the unicast stream over the display.
20 . A method for playing over-the-top (OTT) content streams, comprising:
establishing a user datagram protocol (UDP) connection with a multicast delivery server (MDS);
receiving an OTT content stream in a multicast streaming format via the UDP connection;
receiving a request for data content from a media player, wherein the request is a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) Get request; and
responding to the request with data content received via the UDP connection.
21 . The method of claim 20 , wherein the OTT content stream are delivered from its origin using an HTTP-based streaming protocol.