Progressive deployment and termination of canary instances for software analysis
Granted: December 29, 2015
Patent Number:
9225621
A data processing method, comprising: using computing apparatus, causing instantiating a plurality of baseline application instances that are running a first version of software, and one or more canary application instances that are running a second version of the software; using computing apparatus including a load balancer, causing selectively routing a first proportion of incoming requests to the baseline instances, and routing a second proportion of the incoming requests to the…
System and method for detecting active streams using a heartbeat and secure stop mechanism
Granted: November 24, 2015
Patent Number:
9197530
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for identifying active streaming connections associated with a particular user account. Each active streaming connection transmits heartbeat packets periodically to a server that tracks the receipt of the heartbeat packets. If, for a particular streaming connection, the server stops receiving heartbeat packets, then the server is able to infer that the streaming connection has been terminated.
Multi-CDN digital content streaming
Granted: November 17, 2015
Patent Number:
9191465
Techniques for transmitting a digital content stream through a network between a plurality of content servers and a content player. Network performance information for the plurality of content servers is retrieved. Embodiments then determine a mapping of the plurality of content servers to a plurality of portions of a content buffer on the content player, based on the retrieved network performance information. A request is transmitted to each of the plurality of content servers to…
Personalized markov chains
Granted: September 8, 2015
Patent Number:
9129214
In an approach, a method comprises receiving title interaction data, wherein the title interaction data specifies, an order in which users interacted with a plurality of titles; generating a plurality of statistical models, each statistical model of the plurality of statistical models specifying a plurality of probabilities, wherein the plurality of probabilities represent, for each first title of the plurality of titles and each second title of the plurality of titles, a likelihood that…
Managing content on an ISP cache
Granted: September 8, 2015
Patent Number:
9128892
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a method for updating content stored in a cache residing at an internet service provider (ISP) location that includes receiving popularity data associated with a first plurality of content assets, where the popularity data indicate the popularity of each content asset in the first plurality of content assets across a user base that spans multiple geographic regions, generating a manifest that includes a second plurality of content assets…
Key generation and broadcasting
Granted: July 28, 2015
Patent Number:
9094377
Embodiments provide techniques generating and managing encryption keys within a computing infrastructure. Embodiments provide a key publisher that generates and maintains key pairs in a list at a configurable interval. In addition, the key publisher publishes the list to other components within the computing infrastructure. Embodiments also provide a key consumer that downloads the list of encrypted key pairs and maintains an active window of keys to can be accepted from client devices…
Securely connecting control device to target device
Granted: July 7, 2015
Patent Number:
9077693
In an approach, a target computing device receives a pairing request from a controller computing device, the pairing request including controller credentials that were previously received by the controller computing device from an authentication server computer and encrypted under a service key. The target computing device forwards the pairing request to the authentication server, the authentication server computer being configured to return a pairing response based at least in part on…
Bit rate stream switching
Granted: June 16, 2015
Patent Number:
9060187
Embodiments for changing bit rates in streaming media are provided. As portions of a streaming media file are downloaded for playback, the size of the portion is compared with an expected size determined prior to initiating playback of streaming AV data. The portion of the media file may be padded such that the size of the portion matches the size specified prior to initiating playback of streaming AV data.
Method and system for reclaiming unused resources in a networked application environment
Granted: May 5, 2015
Patent Number:
9026586
Techniques are disclosed for reclaiming resources within a distributed computing system. A reclamation application searches the distributed computing architecture for unused resources, classifies the unused resources, and determines an expiration period based on the classification. The reclamation application determines a candidate owner of the resource based on one or more characteristics of the resource. The reclamation application then notifies the candidate owner that the resource is…
Method and system for improving security and reliability in a networked application environment
Granted: May 5, 2015
Patent Number:
9027141
A security application manages security and reliability of networked applications executing collection of interacting computing elements within a distributed computing architecture. The security application monitors various classes of resources utilized by the collection of nodes within the distributed computing architecture and determine whether utilization of a class of resources is approaching a pre-determined maximum limit. The security application performs a vulnerability scan of a…
Pre-buffering audio streams
Granted: April 28, 2015
Patent Number:
9021537
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for identifying and pre-buffering audio/video stream pairs. The method includes the steps of predictively identifying for pre-buffering at least one audio/video stream pair that may be selected for playback by a user subsequent to a currently playing audio/video stream pair, computing a first rate for pre-buffering an audio portion of the at least one audio/video stream pair and a second rate for pre-buffering a video portion…
Method and system for evaluating the resiliency of a distributed computing service by inducing a latency
Granted: April 21, 2015
Patent Number:
9015289
Techniques are disclosed for validating the resiliency of a networked application made available using a distributed computing infrastructure. In one embodiment, a latency monitoring application observes each active application component and at specified or unspecified intervals, selects one and introduces latency or error messages in one or more messages emanating from the selected active application component. The latency monitoring application then measures the effect of the latency…
Adaptive streaming for digital content distribution
Granted: April 21, 2015
Patent Number:
9014545
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for adapting playback bit rate to available delivery bandwidth in a content delivery system comprising a content server and a content player. A content player periodically estimates whether a given playback bit rate can feasibly provide complete playback for a given title assuming currently available bandwidth. If playback becomes unfeasible at a current bit rate assuming currently available bandwidth, then the content player…
On-device multiplexing of streaming media content
Granted: April 14, 2015
Patent Number:
9009337
Techniques are disclosed for multiplexing a dynamic bit-rate video stream with an audio stream received by a client device in a manner that allows the resulting multiplexed stream to be played back without disruption, despite dynamic changes in the bit rate of the video stream that may occur. A content server may stream both a video stream and an audio stream to a client device for playback. The client device may multiplex the video and audio streams prior to them being presented to a…
Variable bit video streams for adaptive streaming
Granted: March 31, 2015
Patent Number:
8997160
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for adapting playback bit rate in a content delivery system based on scene complexity of the video content as well as network conditions and other performance factors. A scene complexity map of the video content indicates the complexity levels of different scenes within the video content. Using the scene complexity map, a content player may download scenes of lower scene complexity levels from video streams encoded to lower…
Rental inventory management
Granted: March 3, 2015
Patent Number:
8972290
Managing rental items using hierarchical storage locations without putting away returned items. One method comprises receiving units of a rental item at a processing facility. Each of two or more local storage locations is associated with a different successively longer time period of subsequent processing for that storage location. The rental item is associated with a net average shipping quantity and a buffer inventory quantity for each time period. An excess number of the units is…
Parallel streaming
Granted: February 24, 2015
Patent Number:
8966014
Embodiments of the present invention set forth techniques for a content player to stream a media file using multiple network connections. To stream the media file, the content player downloads metadata associated with a requested media file, establishes a network connection with multiple content servers (or multiple network connections with a single content server or both) and begins requesting portions of the media file. In response, the requested portions are transmitted to the content…
User interface for a remote control device
Granted: February 24, 2015
Patent Number:
8963847
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for controlling the operations of a consumer electronic (CE) device. A system includes a display device, CE device, and a remote controller with a touchpad. The CE device is configured to output a context-specific user interface for display by the display device. The particular user interface varies based on the operational context of the CE device. The remote controller sends signals that are detected by the CE device and…
Dynamic virtual chunking of streaming media content
Granted: February 10, 2015
Patent Number:
8954596
Techniques are disclosed for a client device to stream a user-selected media file from a content server. The client device may create a playlist of dynamic virtual chunks to represent a single media stream file on a streaming media server. The playlist itself may be generated from an index in the header of a given stream defining what chunks, or segments of multiplexed audiovisual content, are present within that stream. The playlist of dynamic virtual chunks provides the playback engine…
Internationalization with virtual staging and versioning
Granted: February 3, 2015
Patent Number:
8949465
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for providing a variation of digital content that is based on a client-specified context token. Localized digital assets, e.g., graphics resources, video resource, audio resources, and text string resources, are stored as a collection of records and are dynamically linked to a assemble a software system based on the client-specified context token to generate the variation of digital content. The client receives the assembled…
