Patent Application
20220360616
The present invention is related to the field of streaming media processing technologies. More specifically, the present invention relates to a social entertainment platform that enables live social video streaming.
Traditional platforms that allow a streamer to stream a live video stream and viewers to watch the live video stream, introduce significant delays in communications between the streamer and the viewers on the average of 45 seconds. In a prior instantiation of the Applicant's technology, a system architecture allows multiple users to receive a transmitted stream of media, including commentary and user comments, however the stream is transmitted via a tree network. As a consequence, the media must be transmitted along multiple layers of the tree to achieve the necessary fan-out for the number of users requesting access to that stream. This architecture requires that the stream be stored as long as necessary for the transit through the tree. This increases both the throughput delay for some or all recipients of the data as well as the processing overhead necessary to transmit and control the data flow.
Embodiments of the present invention are directed to a social entertainment platform that supports live social video streaming. One common use for this social entertainment platform is to allow audience members to watch and interact with a person playing an electronic game. The social entertainment platform allows a streamer to stream live (in realtime) on a network(s), such as the Internet, for a live audience to view and to respond to the live entertainment. The social entertainment platform includes several unique areas, including a realtime broadcasting component, a realtime messaging component, a user interface (UI) component, that make the social entertainment platform advantageous to use over traditional platforms.
In one aspect, a method of broadcasting data streams in real-time to a plurality of viewing clients comprises receiving a first data stream from a first broadcasting client to be broadcasted through a content delivery network, wherein the content delivery network contains one or more system racks, wherein each of the one or more system racks contains media channels/multicast channels, associating and distributing the first data stream to a first channel of the media channels in a first system rack, and outputting the first data stream parallelly to viewing clients of a first group.
In another aspect, a content delivery network system for distributing data streams to a plurality of viewing devices comprises one or more system racks having plural media channels in each of the one or more system racks, one or more input nodes coupling with at least one of the plural media channels, and plural output nodes coupling with at least one of the plural media channels.
In some embodiments, the system further comprises a first relay node coupling with a first system rack of the one or more system racks. In other embodiments, the system further comprises a second relay node coupling with a second system rack of the one or more system racks. In some other embodiments, the second relay node is configured to receive a data stream from a first relay node. In some embodiments, the second relay node is configured to transmit the first data stream to a first channel of the second system rack. In other embodiments, the first channel of the second system rack is configured to pass on the first data stream to plural output nodes couple with the second system rack. In some other embodiments, each of the plural output nodes couple with a viewing client of a second group.
In another aspect, a content delivery network system comprises a first system rack having plural media channels, plural input nodes coupling with the first system rack, wherein each of the input nodes couples with a corresponding channel of the plural media channels, a first group of one or more output nodes coupling with a first channel of the plural media channels, and a second group of one or more output nodes coupling with a second channel of the plural media channels.
In some embodiments, the first group of the one or more output nodes are configured to output a first data stream to a first group of viewing clients. In other embodiments, the second group of the one or more output nodes are configured to output a second data stream to a second group of viewing clients. In some other embodiments, the system further comprises a second system rack coupling with the first system rack. In some embodiments, the first system rack contains a first relay node and the second system rack contains a second relay node, wherein the first relay node and the second relay node are configured to transmit data streams between the first system rack and the second system rack. In other embodiments, the first system rack and the second system rack are parallelly broadcast data streams to viewing clients of different groups.
The foregoing will be apparent from the following more particular description of example embodiments of the invention, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which like reference characters refer to the same parts throughout the different views. The drawings are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating embodiments of the present invention.
In the following description, numerous details are set forth for purposes of explanation. However, one of ordinary skill in the art will realize that the invention can be practiced without the use of these specific details. Thus, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and features described herein.
In the present disclosure, a novel architecture of the system offering this social entertainment service is provided. A new architecture has been developed and disclosed to address the limitations and improve the broadcasting efficiencies.
Embodiments of the present invention are directed to a social entertainment platform that supports live social video streaming and messaging. One common use for this social entertainment platform is to allow audience members to watch and interact with a person playing an electronic game. The social entertainment platform allows a streamer to stream live (in realtime) on a network(s), such as the Internet for a live audience to view and to respond to the live entertainment. The social entertainment platform includes several unique areas, including a realtime broadcasting component, a realtime messaging component, a user interface (UI) component, that make the social entertainment platform advantageous to use over traditional platforms. The social entertainment platform and associated service(s) described herein are provided by Caffeine Inc., located in Redwood City, Calif.
In the event that more Viewing Clients 132 desire to see the stream than the predetermined number of output nodes can accommodate, the stream is coupled to a first Relay Node 116 associated with a first system rack 118, which in turn couples the stream to a second Relay Node 120 associated with channel 124 of a second system rack 122. The second Relay Node 120 couples the stream 126 to the media channel 124 on the system rack 122. All Viewing Clients 132 coupled to receive the stream 128 from the second system rack 122 likewise advantageously receive the stream 114 at substantially the same time. Further, the delay introduced by the Relay Nodes 116 and 120, is smaller than the delay introduced via the tree architecture of U.S. Pat. No. 10,498,794, entitled SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENT PLATFORM, which is incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes.
As such, all Viewing Clients 112 and 132 from both the first system rack 118 and the second system rack 122 receive the stream at substantially the same time. It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that this architecture can be extended to include many system racks to accommodate many Viewing Clients. The above described broadcasting system 100 (
Each of the Broadcast Clients 204, 206 couples their respective streams 212, 214 through one of a plurality of Input Nodes 208, 210 to channels 216, 218 respectively. Each Broadcast Client's stream 212, 214 goes to its own media channel 216, 218; the Broadcast Clients do not share a media channel. An Output Node 220 from Output Nodes 299 is selectively adapted to receive a stream 224 from one of the media channels 216. Those Viewing Clients 222 desiring to view the stream 212 from a first Broadcast Client 204 are coupled to the Output Nodes 220 coupled to the media channel 216 assigned to the first Broadcast Client 204. Likewise, those Viewing Clients 226 desiring to view the stream 214 from a second Broadcast Client 206 are coupled to the Output Nodes 228 coupled to the media channel 218 assigned to the second Broadcast Client 206. In this way, the stream is presented from one-to-many. This is in contrast the prior instantiation wherein the stream is processed through a tree architecture before it can be received by multiple viewers. The architecture can be scaled horizontally to accommodate many Broadcast Clients and many Viewing Clients.
At Step 406, resources (e.g., numbers of system racks and channels) that are needed for the data stream are determined. In some embodiments, the data stream contains metadata or tags at the initial section of the data stream. Alternatively, the metadata or tags are mixed in the data stream or data packet to be transmitted along with the content (e.g., media content) of the data stream. The metadata or tags can include types of the media content (e.g., game videos vs. live music film clips), the size of the media content (e.g., a music video has 4 minutes and 12 seconds), and type of customers (e.g., Viewing Clients) that are associated with such type of media content. Any other labels, categories, attributes, characteristics, and features that can be used for data stream identification or categorization are within the scope of the present disclosure, which are all able to be included in the metadata or tags. A computing device (e.g., a server locally or on cloud;
At a Step 408, a predetermined number of system racks and channels are allocated to the selected data stream. In an example, the computing device determines that there are 22 groups of data streams (e.g., 12 groups of video gaming videos (6 racing games, 4 RPG games, and 2 fighting games), 6 communicating data groups, and 4 advertisement data groups) are received at the CDN. The computing device determines that at least three racks are needed to process the 22 groups of data streams when each rack has 10 channels to concurrently process one group of the data groups. After the computing device determines the number of racks that are needed, the computing device is able to determine the distribution of the data groups to respective assigned channels. In some embodiments, the computing device uses up all the channels in one rack before sending the overflow of the data groups to the next rack to maximize the resource utilization. In this exemplary case, a First Rack is first loaded of 10 data groups, which can be loaded concurrently or in sequential. Next, the Second Rack is loaded from the 11th data group, 12th data group, 13th data group, and until the 20 data group is loaded. The data group for the Second Rack can be passed on through the Relay Node of the First Rack to the Relay Node of the Second Rack. Similarly, the 21st data group and the 22nd data group can be distributed to a Third Rack either from the Relay Node of the First Rack directly or via the Second Rack from the First Rack. Any other sequences or methods of distributing the data groups are within the scope of the present disclosure.
In alternative embodiments, the computing device divides and distributes the data groups by a predetermined ratio to the three racks to maintain the system operational efficiency. Using the above example as an illustration, the computing device assigns 8 data groups to a First Rack, 9 data groups to a Second Rack, and 5 data groups to a Third Rack for the total 22 data groups to be broadcasted.
At a Step 410, the data stream are divided and distributed to respective pre-selected system racks and channels. In some embodiments, the data groups are sent to assigned racks and channels. In some alternative embodiments, the data groups are filled in any channels that are empty or not been occupied, which can be by the loading order sequence or randomly assigned.
At a Step 412, the selected data stream (e.g., data groups) is broadcasted to respective viewing clients. The method 400 can stop at a Step 414.
A content delivery network, or content distribution network (CDN), can be a geographically distributed network of servers and their data centers. The goal can be to provide high availability and performance by distributing the service spatially relative to end users.
In utilization, the CDN can be used to broadcast data streams in real-time.
In operation, the data stream of a broadcasting client is sent to the CDN and distributed into selected racks and then to selected channels. The data stream is then outputted to viewing clients via output nodes.
This application claims benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. section 119(e) of the co-pending U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/860,945, filed Jun. 13, 2019, entitled “MULTICAST BROADCAST NETWORK ARCHITECTURE,” which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62860945 | Jun 2019 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 16900504 | Jun 2020 | US |
| Child | 17870617 | US |
