| Swarmcast, Inc. Patent applications |
| Patent application number | Title | Published |
|---|
| 20110264771 | LIVE MEDIA DELIVERY OVER A PACKET-BASED COMPUTER NETWORK - In general, this disclosure describes techniques of determining a backset for client devices attempting to download data of a live transmission. A backset is an amount of temporal delay that the client devices are delayed by when viewing the live transmission. As described herein, a media content provider may determine a recommended backset for each client devices based characteristics of the client device. Each client device may then be backset by the determined value, or may calculate its own backset based on the recommended backset. Establishing a backset for each client device may avoid rebuffering of live transmission data. | 10-27-2011 |
| 20110087755 | RATE SENSITIVE PACKET TRANSFER MECHANISM OVER A PEER-TO-PEER NETWORK - An apparatus, method and system to improve data transfer across a communications network by employing an acknowledgment independent equalized data packet transfer mechanism on a peer-to-peer basis. The present disclosure teaches how many computers can send data to many other computers, with particularity on a peer-to-peer basis when desired, without requiring acknowledgements of safe receipt by the receiving computer. By aggregating several computers to send data in a collection to a requesting computer, transfer rates may be increased. Further, by not requiring acknowledgment of receipt from the receiving computer, and by treating all data packets with equal utility, the present disclosure teaches a mechanism that reduces file transfer administration bandwidth, increases file transfer scalability on demand, and increases overall network transfer efficiency. | 04-14-2011 |
| 20100306373 | DATA RETRIEVAL BASED ON BANDWIDTH COST AND DELAY - The invention provides for a download agent executing on a computing device. The download agent determines the status of each of the source servers, and downloads from source servers that are in the available state. Additionally the download agent tracks characteristics of the source servers. The download agent determines the required bandwidth of portions of the media content stored on the source servers. Based on the characteristics of the source servers and the required bandwidth of the portions of the media content, the download agent determines how much media content should be downloaded from which source servers and at what time. | 12-02-2010 |
| 20100146145 | ADAPTIVE PLAYBACK RATE WITH LOOK-AHEAD - The disclosure provides for a download agent executing on a computing device to dynamically select between media files when a portion of the media file that is currently being downloaded has a portion average playback rate that is greater than a throughput rate at which the computing device is receiving media files. During the portion where the portion average playback rate is greater than the throughput rate, the download agent may dynamically transition to a different media file where the portion average playback rate for the portion is less than or equal to the throughput rate. The download agent may then transition back to the original media file after downloading the portion form the different media file. | 06-10-2010 |
| 20090150557 | DYNAMIC BIT RATE SCALING - The invention provides for a download agent executing on a computing device to dynamically select between media files with different media quality for delivery of media content provided by a media content provider. The download agent may select between different media files with similar content but different quality based on a playback rate of the media file, the resolution of the media file, or the encoding scheme of the media file. The download agent may seamlessly transition from one media file to another media file at key frames to avoid any motion artifacts and to avoid requiring a user to restart the media file. | 06-11-2009 |
| 20090106356 | MEDIA PLAYBACK POINT SEEKING USING DATA RANGE REQUESTS - Techniques are described for downloading user-selected segments of media objects. As described herein, a user may demand that a client device present a segment of a media object when the client device has not yet downloaded the data that represents the partial segment of the media object. The client device may then output two separate requests to a server that hosts the media object. The first request specifies a resource identifier of the media object and a first data range. Data in the first range specifies a format of data of the media object. The second request specifies the resource identifier of the media object and a second data range. Data in the second range represents the requested partial segment of the media object. When the client device receives the data, the client device uses the data in the first range to present the data in the second range. | 04-23-2009 |
