Patent Grant
10735783
The popularity of video streaming has increased rapidly in recent years. In some examples, video of a live event, such as a video game, news event, sporting event, etc. may be captured and streamed to viewers over one or more networks. In these cases, it may be desirable for video to be transmitted with low latency, for example such that actions within video may be seen by viewers while they are still occurring or shortly after their occurrence. This may, in some cases, be particularly advantageous when users are commenting, chatting or otherwise describing actions within these live events. In some examples, latency reduction may be particularly challenging when video content is being broadcast, meaning that it is being transmitted from a provider to multiple different viewers. Latency reduction may be more challenging in broadcast scenarios, for example as opposed to point-to-point transmissions, because provider resources in broadcast scenarios are not entirely focused on a particular single viewer.
The following detailed description may be better understood when read in conjunction with the appended drawings. For the purposes of illustration, there are shown in the drawings example embodiments of various aspects of the disclosure; however, the invention is not limited to the specific methods and instrumentalities disclosed.
Various techniques for low latency streaming, for example in a broadcasting environment, are described herein. The described techniques may employ various combinations of one or more features that, when employed individually or in combination, may reduce latency, in many cases substantially and without unreasonable negative impact on cost or quality. In some examples, the described techniques may be employed for streaming of video corresponding to a live event, such as a video game, sporting event, news event, or other live event. In some cases, the described techniques may allow actions within video to be seen by viewers while they are still occurring are shortly after their occurrence. In some examples, the described techniques may be employed by a video streaming service that receives encoded video captured and transmitted from a remote source, and then decodes and re-encodes the received video for transmission to multiple remote viewers. Additionally, in some examples, the described techniques may be employed in an adaptive bitrate streaming context, in which video is encoded into multiple different renditions having different respective image qualities (e.g., bitrates, resolutions, profiles, frame rates, etc.) and appropriate renditions are selected, and dynamically switched, for individual viewers based on changing network conditions and other characteristics.
One example latency reduction feature described herein involves encoding one or more individual renditions into multiple rendition versions associated with different respective latencies. In one specific example, a first rendition (e.g., a 1080p rendition) may be encoded into a 1080p higher latency version and a 1080p lower latency version. As another specific example, a second rendition (e.g., a 720p rendition) may be encoded into a 720p higher latency version and a 720p lower latency version. In some examples, to assist in reducing latency, the lower latency rendition versions may have a number of characteristics. In particular, in some cases, the lower latency versions may be permitted to include only predictive frames (P-frames). Thus, the lower latency versions may be prohibited from including instantaneous decoder refresh frames (IDR-frames) and bidirectional frames (B-frames). IDR-frames may tend to increase latency due to their large data sizes, and the exclusion of IDR-frames from the lower latency versions may therefore result in latency reduction. Additionally, the exclusion of B-frames from the lower latency versions may reduce latency by alleviating frame reordering delays. In some cases, the lower latency versions may be required to include only frames that each have the same (or within a specified threshold) amount of data as one another, which may serve to reduce the amount of data stored in the player buffer. Furthermore, in some cases, the lower latency versions may employ a low delay encoding configuration, such as without look ahead and using a minimum number of threads.
In some examples, switching to lower latency rendition versions may be permitted only when switching within the same rendition. For example, in some cases, switching to the 1080p lower latency version may be permitted only when switching from the 1080p higher latency version. Put another way, in some examples, when switching between renditions (e.g., between different resolutions, etc.), the switch may be permitted only to the higher latency version of the switched-to rendition. This may allow streaming components to adapt and settle to the higher latency version of a rendition first, and then switch to the lower latency version if network conditions have stabilized. In some examples, such as when the lower latency versions include only P-frames, it may be necessary to switch to the lower latency versions at P-frames, for example as opposed to instantaneous decoder refresh frames (IDR-frames) at which renditions are switched in traditional adaptive bitrate streaming techniques. In some cases, to allow P-frame switching, the first P-frame in each segment of the lower latency versions may be permitted to employ only a single respective reference frame. Additionally, subsequent P-frames in each segment of the lower latency versions may be permitted to reference only frames within their same respective segment. Furthermore, to allow P-frame switching, the higher latency versions may be required to end their segments with a reference frame (e.g., a P-frame).
Another example latency reduction feature described herein involves transmitting video using a protocol that does not require retransmission of lost packets, such as User Datagram Protocol (UDP) and Web Real-Time Communication (WebRTC), which is commonly used for point-to-point transmissions. By not retransmitting lost packets, further reductions in latency may be achieved. However, while not retransmitting lost packets may reduce latency, it may also result in transmissions being temporarily susceptible to corruptions when network condhyitions deteriorate, such as when packet loss rates and congestion increase. In some examples, application of forward error correction (FEC) to the streaming video may help to reduce the extent and duration of this corruption. While non-retransmitting protocols such as WebRTC may commonly be used for point-to-point communications, the techniques described herein may, in some examples, reduce latency in broadcasting scenarios by employing these non-retransmitting protocols in a broadcasting environment.
Yet another example latency reduction feature described herein involves encoding one or more individual renditions into multiple rendition versions having different respective amounts of FEC. In one specific example, a first rendition (e.g., a 1080p rendition) may be encoded into a 1080p higher FEC version and a 1080p lower FEC version. As another specific example, a second rendition (e.g., a 720p rendition) may be encoded into a 720p higher FEC version and a 720p lower FEC version. In yet other examples, one or more individual renditions may be encoded into multiple rendition versions associated with both different respective amounts of forward error correction (FEC) and different latencies. For example, a first rendition (e.g., a 1080p rendition) may be encoded into a 1080p higher latency—higher FEC version, a 1080p higher latency—lower FEC version, a 1080p lower latency—higher FEC version, and a 1080p lower latency—lower FEC version. Additionally, a second rendition (e.g., a 720p rendition) may be encoded into a 720p higher latency—higher FEC version, a 720p higher latency—lower FEC version, a 720p lower latency—higher FEC version, and a 720p lower latency—lower FEC version.
In some examples, a streaming service may include at least one transcoder that encodes the video content into multiple renditions. Additionally, in some examples, the transcoder may also encode each rendition into higher and lower latency versions as described above. In some examples, these multiple renditions and latency versions may be delivered to at least one streaming service edge node, which may stream the video content to multiple players over one or more networks. In some cases, the edge node may code each rendition and/or latency version received from the transcoder into multiple different FEC versions. In some examples, allowing the edge node to perform FEC coding (e.g., as opposed to performing FEC coding at the transcoder) may reduce costs and improve efficiency, for example by reducing the amount of data that is transmitted between the transcoder and the edge node.
Additionally, in some examples, the edge node may receive quality of service feedback information from each player, for example indicating packet loss rates, download speed information, bandwidth, congestion, and other quality of service information. In some cases, the edge node may use this feedback information to select and switch between appropriate renditions and rendition versions for each player. For example, in some cases, the edge node may, on a player-by-player basis, select an appropriate rendition (e.g., 1080p, 720p, etc.), an appropriate latency version (e.g., higher or lower latency) and/or an appropriate FEC version (e.g., higher or lower FEC). Selection of renditions and rendition versions by the streaming service (e.g., by the edge node) may differ from traditional adaptive bitrate streaming techniques in which rendition selection may be performed by each player/client. Selection of renditions and rendition versions by the streaming service may, for example, serve to reduce complexity and improve performance at the player/client, such as by reducing computational burden on the client to perform rendition selection. Moreover, server-side rendition selection may also improve security by allowing rendition selection algorithms, which may require investment of time and effort to create and improve, to be stored at a more secure server environment as opposed to a client/player.
As set forth above, in some examples, video content, including the selected renditions and rendition versions, may be streamed from the edge node to multiple players using WebRTC protocol. In some cases, when employing WebRTC protocol, because the encoded video content may be incompatible with WebRTC video channels, the video content may be streamed using at least one data channel of the Web RTC protocol. In some cases, use of a data channel, for example as opposed to a video channel, may allow video data to be transmitted without being constrained to a particular video format of a WebRTC video channel and may instead allow use of other video formats. Additionally, in some cases, the quality of service feedback data may be sent from the player to the edge node via at least one back channel. Additionally, it is noted that, while the above described techniques refer to transmission and streaming of video data, the techniques disclosed herein may also be applied to other types of data, such as audio data, and/or any combinations thereof.
In some examples, video capture node 110 may capture video using screen capture software, one or more cameras, and/or other video capture components. In the example of
Video may be transmitted from the video streaming service 120 using adaptive bitrate streaming, in which video is encoded into multiple different renditions 131 (including renditions 131A-B and potentially other renditions) having different respective image qualities (e.g., bitrates, resolutions, profiles, frame rates, etc.) and appropriate renditions are selected, and dynamically switched, for individual viewers based on changing network conditions and other characteristics. In some examples, encoder 123 may encode the source video content received from the video capture node 110 into the multiple different renditions 131. In one specific example, rendition 131A may be a 1080p resolution rendition of the video content, while rendition 131B may be a 720p resolution rendition of the video content. The encoded renditions 131 may then be delivered to edge node 140 for transmission to players 150A-C and player/CDN 151, such as using various techniques described in detail below. The edge node 140 is a node that transmits video content from the video streaming service 120 to one or more players.
In particular, in some examples, one or more individual renditions may be encoded into multiple rendition versions associated with different respective latencies. Referring now to
In some examples, to assist in reducing latency, the lower latency versions 211 and 221 may have a number of characteristics. In particular, in some cases, the lower latency versions 211 and 221 may be permitted to include only predictive frames (P-frames). Thus, the lower latency versions 211 and 221 may be prohibited from including instantaneous decoder refresh frames (IDR-frames) and bidirectional frames (B-frames). IDR-frames may tend to increase latency due to their large data sizes, and the exclusion of IDR-frames from the lower latency versions 211 and 221 may therefore result in latency reduction. Additionally, the exclusion of B-frames from the lower latency versions 211 and 221 may reduce latency by alleviating frame reordering delays. Additionally, in some cases, the lower latency versions 211 and 221 may be required to include only frames that each have the same (or within a specified threshold) amount of data as one another, which may serve to reduce the amount of data stored in the player buffer. Furthermore, in some cases, the lower latency versions 211 and 221 may employ a low delay encoding configuration, such as without look ahead and using a minimum number of threads.
In some examples, switching to lower latency versions 211 and 221 may be permitted only when switching within the same rendition. For example, in some cases, switching to lower latency version 211 may be permitted only when switching from higher latency version 212 within the same rendition 210. As another example, switching to lower latency version 221 may be permitted only when switching from higher latency version 222 within the same rendition 220. Put another way, in some examples, when switching between renditions 210 and 220, the switch may be permitted only to the higher latency version (e.g., version 212 or 222) of the switched-to rendition. This may allow streaming components to adapt and settle to the higher latency version of a rendition first, and then switch to the lower latency version if network conditions have stabilized.
The use of only P-frames in lower latency versions 211 and 221 may, in some examples, also result in exclusion of instantaneous decoder refresh frames (IDR-frames) from the lower latency versions 211 and 221. In traditional adaptive bitrate streaming techniques, segments of encoded video typically begin with IDR frames. An IDR-frame is a special intra-coded picture frame (I-frame) that flushes all reference pictures in the DPB (decoded picture buffer), so that no following video frames can reference any picture prior to the IDR-frame. Thus, in some examples, because lower latency versions 211 and 221 may include only P-frames, their segments may begin with P-frames. By contrast, higher latency versions 212 and 222 may include segments that begin with IDR-frames as in traditional adaptive bitrate streaming techniques. These distinctions are shown in
When the lower latency versions 211 and 221 include segments 240 that begin with P-frames 251, it may be necessary to switch to the lower latency versions 211 and 221 at P-frames 251. By contrast, because higher latency versions 212 and 222 may include segments 240 that begin with IDR-frames 252, the higher latency versions 212 and 222 may instead be switched to at IDR-frames 252. In some cases, to allow P-frame switching for lower latency version 211 and 221, the first P-frame in each segment of the lower latency versions 211 and 221 may be permitted to employ only a single respective reference frame. Additionally, subsequent P-frames in each segment of the lower latency versions 211 and 221 may be permitted to reference only frames within their same respective segment. Furthermore, to allow P-frame switching, the higher latency versions 212 and 222 may be required to end their segments with a reference frame (e.g., a P-frame).
Some examples of P-frame and IDR-frame switching for higher latency and lower latency versions are also depicted in
For the next segment, a determination is made to switch from rendition 220 back to rendition 210. As set forth above, however, when switching between renditions in this example, the switch must be made to the higher latency version of the switched-to rendition. Thus, in this example, when switching from rendition 220 to rendition 210, the switch is made to higher latency version 212 as opposed to lower latency version 211. Accordingly, higher latency version 212 of rendition 210 is selected for the third segment (as indicated by the thick bold outlining surrounding the third segment in higher latency version 212). Additionally, it is noted that the switch to higher latency version 212 is performed at an IDR-frame 252.
For the next segment, a determination is made to switch within rendition 210 from higher latency version 212 to lower latency version 211. In this case, the switch to the lower latency version 211 may be permitted because it is switching within the same rendition 210. Accordingly, lower latency version 211 of rendition 210 is selected for the fourth segment (as indicated by the thick bold outlining surrounding the fourth segment in lower latency version 211). Additionally, it is noted that the switch to lower latency version 211 is performed at a P-frame 251.
In order to further reduce latency, video may, in some examples, be transmitted using a protocol that does not require retransmission of lost packets, such as User Datagram Protocol (UDP) and Web Real-Time Communication (WebRTC), which is commonly used for point-to-point transmissions. Referring back to
In some examples, one or more individual renditions may be encoded into multiple rendition versions associated with different respective amounts of FEC. Referring now to
Some examples of switching between rendition versions in both latency and FEC dimensions are also depicted in
For the next segment, a determination is made to switch from rendition 320 back to rendition 310. As set forth above, however, when switching between renditions in this example, the switch must be made to a higher latency version of the switched-to rendition. Additionally, in this example, a determination is made to switch to maintain a higher FEC version. Thus, in this example, when switching from rendition 320 to rendition 310, the switch is made to higher latency—higher FEC version 314. Accordingly, higher latency—higher FEC version 314 of rendition 310 is selected for the third segment (as indicated by the thick bold outlining surrounding the third segment in higher latency—higher FEC version 314).
For the next segment, a determination is made to switch within rendition 310 to a lower latency version without changing the amount of FEC. Accordingly, lower latency—higher FEC version 312 of rendition 310 is selected for the fourth segment (as indicated by the thick bold outlining surrounding the fourth segment in lower latency—higher FEC version 312). In this case, the switch to version 312, which is a lower latency version, may be permitted because it is switching from within the same rendition 310.
For the next segment, a determination is made to switch within rendition 310 to a lower FEC version while retaining lower latency. Accordingly, lower latency—lower FEC version 311 of rendition 310 is selected for the fifth segment (as indicated by the thick bold outlining surrounding the fifth segment in lower latency—lower FEC version 311). In this case, the switch to version 311, which is a lower latency version, may be permitted because it is switching from within the same rendition 310.
Referring back to
Referring now to
It is noted that, in some examples, zero FEC versions 433A-D may be identical to their respective transcoded versions 421-424 (since no FEC coding is applied to transcoded versions 421-424). In some examples, the higher FEC versions 431A-D and the lower FEC versions 432A-D may be used for video that is transmitted via WebRTC or another protocol that does not require retransmission of lost packets. Thus, in some examples, higher FEC versions 431A-D and the lower FEC versions 432A-D may be used for video that is transmitted to players 150A-C of
It is noted that
Referring now to
The edge node 140 may use the quality of service data 521 to select and switch between appropriate renditions and rendition versions for each player to which it transmits video content, including player 550. For example, in some cases, the edge node 140 may, on a player-by-player basis, select an appropriate rendition (e.g., 1080p, 720p, etc.), an appropriate latency version (e.g., higher or lower latency) and/or an appropriate FEC version (e.g., higher or lower FEC). In the example of
Selection of renditions and rendition versions by the streaming service 120 (e.g., by the edge node 140) may differ from traditional adaptive bitrate streaming techniques in which rendition selection may be performed by each player/client. Selection of renditions and rendition versions by the streaming service 120 may, for example, serve to reduce complexity and improve performance at the player/client, such as by reducing computational burden on the client to perform rendition selection. Moreover, server-side rendition selection may also improve security by allowing rendition selection algorithms, which may require investment of time and effort to create and improve, to be stored at a more secure server environment.
It is noted, however, that, while
In the example of
As set forth above, in some examples, the lower latency versions may be permitted to include only predictive frames (P-frames). Thus, the lower latency versions may be prohibited from including instantaneous decoder refresh frames (IDR-frames) and bidirectional frames (B-frames). In some cases, the lower latency versions may be required to include only frames that each have the same (or within a specified threshold) amount of data as one another, which may serve to reduce the amount of data stored in the player buffer. For example, each frame in the first lower latency version may be required to have, within a specified threshold, a same amount of data as each other frame in the first lower latency version. As another example, each frame in the second lower latency version may be required to have, within a specified threshold, a same amount of data as each other frame in the second lower latency version. In some examples, the specified threshold may be zero (meaning that each frame is required to have the same amount of data). Furthermore, in some cases, the lower latency versions may employ a low delay encoding configuration, such as without look ahead and using a minimum number of threads. In some examples, switching to lower latency rendition versions may be permitted only when switching within the same rendition. Put another way, in some examples, when switching between renditions (e.g., between different resolutions, etc.), the switch may be permitted only to the higher latency version of the switched-to rendition. This may allow streaming components to adapt and settle to the higher latency version of a rendition first, and then switch to the lower latency version if network conditions have stabilized. In some examples, such as when the lower latency versions include only P-frames, it may be necessary to switch to the lower latency versions at P-frames, for example as opposed to instantaneous decoder refresh frames (IDR-frames) at which renditions are switched in traditional adaptive bitrate streaming techniques. In some cases, to allow P-frame switching, the first P-frame in each segment of the lower latency versions may use only one respective reference frame. Additionally, subsequent P-frames in each segment of the lower latency versions may be permitted to reference only frames within their same respective segment. Furthermore, to allow P-frame switching, the higher latency versions may be required to end their segments with a reference frame. For example, the higher latency versions may be required to end their segments with a P-frame.
At operation 612, a first portion of the video content is transmitted to a first player using the second rendition (e.g., using the second higher latency version or the second lower latency version). For example, as shown in
At operation 614, transmission of the video content is switched from the second rendition to the first rendition. For example, due to changing network conditions, a determination may be made to switch-up to a higher image quality rendition or switch-down to a lower image quality rendition. In some examples, a determination may be made to switch-up to a higher image quality rendition when network conditions are improving, while a determination may be made to switch-down to a lower image quality rendition when network conditions are deteriorating. The switch between renditions at operation 614 may be made at an IDR-frame. As set forth above, when switching between renditions, the switch may be made only to the higher latency version of the switched-to rendition, which may include segments that begin with IDR-frames.
At operation 616, a second portion of the video content is transmitted to the first player using the first higher latency version. For example, as shown in
At operation 618, transmission of the video content is switched within the first rendition to a lower latency. For example, in some cases, once it is determined that network conditions have stabilized while using the first rendition, a determination may be made to switch to a lower latency version within the first rendition, such as to reduce latency. The switch within the first rendition to the first lower latency version at operation 618 may be made at a P-frame. As set forth above, in some examples, lower latency versions may include only P-frames, and therefore switches to lower latency versions may occur at P-frames.
At operation 620, a third portion of the video content is transmitted to the first player using the first lower latency version. For example, as shown in
In the example of
At operation 712, a first portion of the video content is transmitted to a first player using the second rendition (e.g., using the third version or the fourth version). For example, as shown in
At operation 714, transmission of the video content is switched from the second rendition to the first rendition. For example, due to changing network conditions, a determination may be made to switch-up to a higher image quality rendition or switch-down to a lower image quality rendition. In some examples, a determination may be made to switch-up to a higher image quality rendition when network conditions are improving, while a determination may be made to switch-down to a lower image quality rendition when network conditions are deteriorating.
At operation 716, a second portion of the video content is transmitted to the first player using the first version. For example, as shown in
At operation 718, amounts of FEC applied to the transmission of the video content to the first player are switched within the first rendition. For example, in some cases, the amounts of FEC may be switched based, at least in part, on network conditions such as a packet loss rate associated with the transmission of the video content to the first player. In some examples, a switch may be made to a lower amount of FEC when packet loss rates are generally decreasing and/or lower. By contrast, in some examples, a switch may be made to a higher amount of FEC when packet loss rates are generally increasing and/or higher.
At operation 720, a third portion of the video content is transmitted to the first player using the first lower latency version. For example, as shown in
At operation 812, the edge node generates a second encoded version of the video content having a first amount of FEC by applying the first amount of FEC to the first encoded version. For example, as shown in
At operation 814, the edge node generates a third encoded version of the video content having a second amount of FEC by applying the second amount of FEC to the first encoded version. For example, as shown in
At operation 816, the edge node transmits a first portion of the video content to a first player using the second encoded version. For example, in some cases, the edge node may transmit the first portion of the video content to the first player using 1080p higher latency—higher FEC version 431A of
At operation 818, the edge node transmits the first portion of the video content to the first player using the third encoded version. For example, in some cases, the edge node may transmit the first portion of the video content to the second player using 1080p higher latency—lower FEC version 432A of
At operation 912, first quality of service information is received, by the one or more servers, from the first player, associated with a first quality of service in relation to playing of the video content by the first player. At operation 914, second quality of service information is received, by the one or more servers, from the second player, associated with a second quality of service in relation to playing of the video content by the second player. For example, as shown in
At operation 916, a first encoded version is selected from the plurality of encoded versions, by the one or more servers, based at least in part on the first quality of service information, for transmitting a first portion of the video content to the first player. In particular, in some examples, the one or more servers may select a rendition and/or image quality, an amount of latency, an amount of FEC, and/or other characteristics associated with the first encoded version based, at least in part, on the first quality of service information. At operation 918, a second encoded version is selected from the plurality of encoded versions, by the one or more servers, based at least in part on the second quality of service information, for transmitting a first portion of the video content to the second player. In particular, in some examples, the one or more servers may select a rendition, an amount of latency, an amount of FEC, and/or other characteristics associated with the second encoded version based, at least in part, on the second quality of service information. For example, as set forth above, the video streaming service may use the quality of service information to select and switch between appropriate renditions and rendition versions for each player to which it transmits video content. For example, in some cases, the video streaming service may, on a player-by-player basis, select an appropriate rendition (e.g., 1080p, 720p, etc.), an appropriate latency version (e.g., higher or lower latency) and/or an appropriate FEC version (e.g., higher or lower FEC). In some examples, the video streaming service may use the quality of service information to select and switch between renditions. In some examples, when download speeds and other network conditions are improving, the video streaming service may generally switch to higher image quality renditions. By contrast, in some examples, when download speeds and other network conditions are deteriorating, the video streaming service may generally switch to lower image quality renditions. Additionally, in some examples, the video streaming service may select and switch between latency versions using techniques such as those described above. As described above, in some examples, the video streaming service may select a higher latency version when switching between renditions. The video streaming service may then use quality of service information to determine when to switch to a lower latency version within the currently selected rendition, such as when the quality of service information indicates that network conditions have stabilized. Furthermore, in some examples, the video streaming service may select and switch between FEC versions using techniques such as those described above. For example, the video streaming service may use quality of service information to determine packet loss rates. In some examples, when packet loss rates are higher, the video streaming service may generally switch to and/or maintain higher FEC versions. By contrast, in some examples, when packet loss rates are lower, the video streaming service may generally switch to and/or maintain lower FEC versions.
An example system for transmitting and providing data will now be described in detail. In particular,
Each type or configuration of computing resource may be available in different sizes, such as large resources—consisting of many processors, large amounts of memory and/or large storage capacity—and small resources—consisting of fewer processors, smaller amounts of memory and/or smaller storage capacity. Customers may choose to allocate a number of small processing resources as web servers and/or one large processing resource as a database server, for example.
Data center 85 may include servers 76a and 76b (which may be referred herein singularly as server 76 or in the plural as servers 76) that provide computing resources. These resources may be available as bare metal resources or as virtual machine instances 78a-d (which may be referred herein singularly as virtual machine instance 78 or in the plural as virtual machine instances 78).
The availability of virtualization technologies for computing hardware has afforded benefits for providing large scale computing resources for customers and allowing computing resources to be efficiently and securely shared between multiple customers. For example, virtualization technologies may allow a physical computing device to be shared among multiple users by providing each user with one or more virtual machine instances hosted by the physical computing device. A virtual machine instance may be a software emulation of a particular physical computing system that acts as a distinct logical computing system. Such a virtual machine instance provides isolation among multiple operating systems sharing a given physical computing resource. Furthermore, some virtualization technologies may provide virtual resources that span one or more physical resources, such as a single virtual machine instance with multiple virtual processors that span multiple distinct physical computing systems.
Referring to
Communication network 73 may provide access to computers 72. User computers 72 may be computers utilized by users 70 or other customers of data center 85. For instance, user computer 72a or 72b may be a server, a desktop or laptop personal computer, a tablet computer, a wireless telephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), an e-book reader, a game console, a set-top box or any other computing device capable of accessing data center 85. User computer 72a or 72b may connect directly to the Internet (e.g., via a cable modem or a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)). Although only two user computers 72a and 72b are depicted, it should be appreciated that there may be multiple user computers.
User computers 72 may also be utilized to configure aspects of the computing resources provided by data center 85. In this regard, data center 85 might provide a gateway or web interface through which aspects of its operation may be configured through the use of a web browser application program executing on user computer 72. Alternately, a stand-alone application program executing on user computer 72 might access an application programming interface (API) exposed by data center 85 for performing the configuration operations. Other mechanisms for configuring the operation of various web services available at data center 85 might also be utilized.
Servers 76 shown in
It should be appreciated that although the embodiments disclosed above discuss the context of virtual machine instances, other types of implementations can be utilized with the concepts and technologies disclosed herein. For example, the embodiments disclosed herein might also be utilized with computing systems that do not utilize virtual machine instances.
In the example data center 85 shown in
In the example data center 85 shown in
It should be appreciated that the network topology illustrated in
It should also be appreciated that data center 85 described in
In at least some embodiments, a server that implements a portion or all of one or more of the technologies described herein may include a computer system that includes or is configured to access one or more computer-accessible media.
In various embodiments, computing device 15 may be a uniprocessor system including one processor 10 or a multiprocessor system including several processors 10 (e.g., two, four, eight or another suitable number). Processors 10 may be any suitable processors capable of executing instructions. For example, in various embodiments, processors 10 may be embedded processors implementing any of a variety of instruction set architectures (ISAs), such as the x86, PowerPC, SPARC or MIPS ISAs or any other suitable ISA. In multiprocessor systems, each of processors 10 may commonly, but not necessarily, implement the same ISA.
System memory 20 may be configured to store instructions and data accessible by processor(s) 10. In various embodiments, system memory 20 may be implemented using any suitable memory technology, such as static random access memory (SRAM), synchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM), nonvolatile/Flash®-type memory or any other type of memory. In the illustrated embodiment, program instructions and data implementing one or more desired functions, such as those methods, techniques and data described above, are shown stored within system memory 20 as code 25 and data 26.
In one embodiment, I/O interface 30 may be configured to coordinate I/O traffic between processor 10, system memory 20 and any peripherals in the device, including network interface 40 or other peripheral interfaces. In some embodiments, I/O interface 30 may perform any necessary protocol, timing or other data transformations to convert data signals from one component (e.g., system memory 20) into a format suitable for use by another component (e.g., processor 10). In some embodiments, I/O interface 30 may include support for devices attached through various types of peripheral buses, such as a variant of the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus standard or the Universal Serial Bus (USB) standard, for example. In some embodiments, the function of I/O interface 30 may be split into two or more separate components, such as a north bridge and a south bridge, for example. Also, in some embodiments some or all of the functionality of I/O interface 30, such as an interface to system memory 20, may be incorporated directly into processor 10.
Network interface 40 may be configured to allow data to be exchanged between computing device 15 and other device or devices 60 attached to a network or networks 50, such as other computer systems or devices, for example. In various embodiments, network interface 40 may support communication via any suitable wired or wireless general data networks, such as types of Ethernet networks, for example. Additionally, network interface 40 may support communication via telecommunications/telephony networks, such as analog voice networks or digital fiber communications networks, via storage area networks such as Fibre Channel SANs (storage area networks) or via any other suitable type of network and/or protocol.
In some embodiments, system memory 20 may be one embodiment of a computer-accessible medium configured to store program instructions and data as described above for implementing embodiments of the corresponding methods and apparatus. However, in other embodiments, program instructions and/or data may be received, sent or stored upon different types of computer-accessible media. Generally speaking, a computer-accessible medium may include non-transitory storage media or memory media, such as magnetic or optical media—e.g., disk or DVD/CD coupled to computing device 15 via I/O interface 30. A non-transitory computer-accessible storage medium may also include any volatile or non-volatile media, such as RAM (e.g., SDRAM, DDR SDRAM, RDRAM, SRAM, etc.), ROM (read only memory) etc., that may be included in some embodiments of computing device 15 as system memory 20 or another type of memory. Further, a computer-accessible medium may include transmission media or signals such as electrical, electromagnetic or digital signals conveyed via a communication medium, such as a network and/or a wireless link, such as those that may be implemented via network interface 40.
A network set up by an entity, such as a company or a public sector organization, to provide one or more web services (such as various types of cloud-based computing or storage) accessible via the Internet and/or other networks to a distributed set of clients may be termed a provider network. Such a provider network may include numerous data centers hosting various resource pools, such as collections of physical and/or virtualized computer servers, storage devices, networking equipment and the like, needed to implement and distribute the infrastructure and web services offered by the provider network. The resources may in some embodiments be offered to clients in various units related to the web service, such as an amount of storage capacity for storage, processing capability for processing, as instances, as sets of related services and the like. A virtual computing instance may, for example, comprise one or more servers with a specified computational capacity (which may be specified by indicating the type and number of CPUs, the main memory size and so on) and a specified software stack (e.g., a particular version of an operating system, which may in turn run on top of a hypervisor).
A compute node, which may be referred to also as a computing node, may be implemented on a wide variety of computing environments, such as commodity-hardware computers, virtual machines, web services, computing clusters and computing appliances. Any of these computing devices or environments may, for convenience, be described as compute nodes.
A number of different types of computing devices may be used singly or in combination to implement the resources of the provider network in different embodiments, for example computer servers, storage devices, network devices and the like. In some embodiments a client or user may be provided direct access to a resource instance, e.g., by giving a user an administrator login and password. In other embodiments the provider network operator may allow clients to specify execution requirements for specified client applications and schedule execution of the applications on behalf of the client on execution platforms (such as application server instances, Java™ virtual machines (JVMs), general-purpose or special-purpose operating systems, platforms that support various interpreted or compiled programming languages such as Ruby, Perl, Python, C, C++ and the like or high-performance computing platforms) suitable for the applications, without, for example, requiring the client to access an instance or an execution platform directly. A given execution platform may utilize one or more resource instances in some implementations; in other implementations, multiple execution platforms may be mapped to a single resource instance.
In many environments, operators of provider networks that implement different types of virtualized computing, storage and/or other network-accessible functionality may allow customers to reserve or purchase access to resources in various resource acquisition modes. The computing resource provider may provide facilities for customers to select and launch the desired computing resources, deploy application components to the computing resources and maintain an application executing in the environment. In addition, the computing resource provider may provide further facilities for the customer to quickly and easily scale up or scale down the numbers and types of resources allocated to the application, either manually or through automatic scaling, as demand for or capacity requirements of the application change. The computing resources provided by the computing resource provider may be made available in discrete units, which may be referred to as instances. An instance may represent a physical server hardware platform, a virtual machine instance executing on a server or some combination of the two. Various types and configurations of instances may be made available, including different sizes of resources executing different operating systems (OS) and/or hypervisors, and with various installed software applications, runtimes and the like. Instances may further be available in specific availability zones, representing a logical region, a fault tolerant region, a data center or other geographic location of the underlying computing hardware, for example. Instances may be copied within an availability zone or across availability zones to improve the redundancy of the instance, and instances may be migrated within a particular availability zone or across availability zones. As one example, the latency for client communications with a particular server in an availability zone may be less than the latency for client communications with a different server. As such, an instance may be migrated from the higher latency server to the lower latency server to improve the overall client experience.
In some embodiments the provider network may be organized into a plurality of geographical regions, and each region may include one or more availability zones. An availability zone (which may also be referred to as an availability container) in turn may comprise one or more distinct locations or data centers, configured in such a way that the resources in a given availability zone may be isolated or insulated from failures in other availability zones. That is, a failure in one availability zone may not be expected to result in a failure in any other availability zone. Thus, the availability profile of a resource instance is intended to be independent of the availability profile of a resource instance in a different availability zone. Clients may be able to protect their applications from failures at a single location by launching multiple application instances in respective availability zones. At the same time, in some implementations inexpensive and low latency network connectivity may be provided between resource instances that reside within the same geographical region (and network transmissions between resources of the same availability zone may be even faster).
As set forth above, content may be provided by a content provider to one or more clients. The term content, as used herein, refers to any presentable information, and the term content item, as used herein, refers to any collection of any such presentable information. A content provider may, for example, provide one or more content providing services for providing content to clients. The content providing services may reside on one or more servers. The content providing services may be scalable to meet the demands of one or more customers and may increase or decrease in capability based on the number and type of incoming client requests. Portions of content providing services may also be migrated to be placed in positions of reduced latency with requesting clients. For example, the content provider may determine an “edge” of a system or network associated with content providing services that is physically and/or logically closest to a particular client. The content provider may then, for example, “spin-up,” migrate resources or otherwise employ components associated with the determined edge for interacting with the particular client. Such an edge determination process may, in some cases, provide an efficient technique for identifying and employing components that are well suited to interact with a particular client, and may, in some embodiments, reduce the latency for communications between a content provider and one or more clients.
In addition, certain methods or process blocks may be omitted in some implementations. The methods and processes described herein are also not limited to any particular sequence, and the blocks or states relating thereto can be performed in other sequences that are appropriate. For example, described blocks or states may be performed in an order other than that specifically disclosed, or multiple blocks or states may be combined in a single block or state. The example blocks or states may be performed in serial, in parallel or in some other manner. Blocks or states may be added to or removed from the disclosed example embodiments.
It will also be appreciated that various items are illustrated as being stored in memory or on storage while being used, and that these items or portions thereof may be transferred between memory and other storage devices for purposes of memory management and data integrity. Alternatively, in other embodiments some or all of the software modules and/or systems may execute in memory on another device and communicate with the illustrated computing systems via inter-computer communication. Furthermore, in some embodiments, some or all of the systems and/or modules may be implemented or provided in other ways, such as at least partially in firmware and/or hardware, including, but not limited to, one or more application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), standard integrated circuits, controllers (e.g., by executing appropriate instructions, and including microcontrollers and/or embedded controllers), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), complex programmable logic devices (CPLDs), etc. Some or all of the modules, systems and data structures may also be stored (e.g., as software instructions or structured data) on a computer-readable medium, such as a hard disk, a memory, a network or a portable media article to be read by an appropriate drive or via an appropriate connection. The systems, modules and data structures may also be transmitted as generated data signals (e.g., as part of a carrier wave or other analog or digital propagated signal) on a variety of computer-readable transmission media, including wireless-based and wired/cable-based media, and may take a variety of forms (e.g., as part of a single or multiplexed analog signal, or as multiple discrete digital packets or frames). Such computer program products may also take other forms in other embodiments. Accordingly, the present invention may be practiced with other computer system configurations.
Conditional language used herein, such as, among others, “can,” “could,” “might,” “may,” “e.g.” and the like, unless specifically stated otherwise, or otherwise understood within the context as used, is generally intended to convey that certain embodiments include, while other embodiments do not include, certain features, elements, and/or steps. Thus, such conditional language is not generally intended to imply that features, elements and/or steps are in any way required for one or more embodiments or that one or more embodiments necessarily include logic for deciding, with or without author input or prompting, whether these features, elements and/or steps are included or are to be performed in any particular embodiment. The terms “comprising,” “including,” “having” and the like are synonymous and are used inclusively, in an open-ended fashion, and do not exclude additional elements, features, acts, operations and so forth. Also, the term “or” is used in its inclusive sense (and not in its exclusive sense) so that when used, for example, to connect a list of elements, the term “or” means one, some or all of the elements in the list.
While certain example embodiments have been described, these embodiments have been presented by way of example only and are not intended to limit the scope of the inventions disclosed herein. Thus, nothing in the foregoing description is intended to imply that any particular feature, characteristic, step, module or block is necessary or indispensable. Indeed, the novel methods and systems described herein may be embodied in a variety of other forms; furthermore, various omissions, substitutions and changes in the form of the methods and systems described herein may be made without departing from the spirit of the inventions disclosed herein. The accompanying claims and their equivalents are intended to cover such forms or modifications as would fall within the scope and spirit of certain of the inventions disclosed herein.
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