Patent ID: 8190677
Filing Date: 2012-05-29
Classification: H04L,H04N

Abstract:
1. A system for delivering media content, the system comprising: a server comprising a computer processor, the server configured to: provide a plurality of network abstraction layer (NAL) units representing a scalable media presentation, each NAL unit being associated with one layer of a plurality of layers; group the plurality of NAL units into a plurality of media data groups, each media data group corresponding to only one layer of the plurality of layers for a specific time period of the scalable media presentation; provide a server index comprising a plurality of server index entries, each server index entry corresponding to only one of the plurality of media data groups and comprising a media data group identifier for identifying the corresponding media data group, a quality identifier for identifying a quality level of the corresponding media data group and a layer identifier for identifying the layer associated with the corresponding media data group; a client, the client configured to: receive a client index, the client index comprising a plurality of client index entries, each client index entry corresponding to only one of the server index entries; determine a desired quality level for the specific time period of the scalable media presentation, based at least on an available bandwidth metric; based on the client index, determine a subset of the plurality of layers required to reproduce the scalable media presentation at the desired quality level; generate at least one media request corresponding to the subset of the plurality of layers, each of the at least one media request comprising a scalable media presentation identifier for identifying the scalable media presentation, a requested quality identifier and a requested layer identifier; transmit the at least one media request to the server; and wherein the server is further configured to, for each at least one media request: determine a requested index entry in the plurality of server index entries based on the scalable media presentation identifier, the requested quality identifier and the requested layer identifier; identify a requested media data group based on the media data group identifier of the requested index entry; and transmit the requested media data group to the client.