Patent ID: 9118814
Filing Date: 2015-08-25
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
1. A peer-to-peer (P 2 P) video-on-demand (VoD) method of using a plurality of IP-enabled VoD peers in a pool for providing video content data to a video content data requesting client peer in the pool, the method comprising: designating, for the requesting client peer, one other peer in the pool as a parent peer for serving high priority playback content of video content that is substantially immediately needed for playback display controlled by the requesting client peer, the parent peer operating as one designated playback peer that is in communication with the requesting client peer to serve the high priority playback content for the playback display at the requesting client peer; downloading the high priority playback content from the parent peer to the requesting client peer, the high priority playback content including chunks of the high priority playback content within a sliding window over a buffer window used during playback of the video content, wherein the sliding window maintains a minimum length of the video content, and wherein respective chunks of the high priority playback content are prioritized in download bandwidth at the requesting client peer such that the respective chunks are prioritized to be received from the parent peer before a scheduled playback deadline of the buffer window; downloading, during the downloading of the high priority playback content for the buffer window, low priority pre-fetch content of the video content to the requesting client peer from another peer in the pool other than the parent peer, the low priority pre-fetch content including chunks of the low priority video content outside of the sliding window, and the low priority pre-fetch content including video content segments spaced at regular intervals within the video content, wherein the length of a video content segment is less than the regular interval; allocating remaining available download bandwidth at the requesting client peer such that download bandwidth at the requesting client peer that exceeds an encoding rate of the video content and that is not used for downloading the high priority playback content from the parent peer is allocated, wherein the remaining available download bandwidth is allocated for downloading the low priority pre-fetch content from the another peer in the pool; using the requesting client peer, serving for the playback display, video content comprising the high priority playback content and the low priority pre-fetch content by combining the high priority playback content and the low priority pre-fetch content; and when the requesting client peer requests playback at a point of the video content in which playback content has not been downloaded, adjusting the sliding window to a video content segment of the video content segments closest to the requested playback point.