KR20090001806A

KR20090001806A - Video on demand service system using pre-download of partial data and method thereof

Info

Publication number: KR20090001806A
Application number: KR1020070050153A
Authority: KR
Inventors: 서한교; 정기태
Original assignee: 주식회사 케이티
Priority date: 2007-05-23
Filing date: 2007-05-23
Publication date: 2009-01-09

Abstract

The present invention relates to a video on demand (VOD) service system and a method using a pre-divided transmission method, and a VOD server for storing and managing VOD content for a video on demand (VOD) service; A network monitoring device for monitoring a network state to determine a pre-download policy and a download time zone for a specific VOD content, and requesting a pre-download of a part of the VOD content to the VOD server, and a VOD content downloaded from the VOD server. By storing a part and constructing a set-top box that provides VOD service by receiving the rest of the VOD content in real time from the VOD server later, the user may store part of the content in the set-top box according to the network condition in advance and the user may watch it. If desired, download the rest of the content And, at the same time to minimize the dependency network to reduce the initial buffering time for the VOD service discloses a technique for increasing the user's convenience.

Description

Video On Demand service system using pre-download of partial data and method

1 is a configuration diagram of a VOD service system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a method of providing a VOD service using a pre-divided transmission scheme according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a flowchart illustrating in detail the pre-division transmission method of FIG.

4A is a graph showing the correlation between dictionary download size and content full size or running time.

4B is a graph showing the correlation between pre-download size and network average transfer rate.

100: set-top box 200: modem

300: COT (Central Office Terminal) 400: VOD Server

500: network monitoring device 510: data collection unit

520: Pre-download policy determination unit 530: Pre-download time zone determination unit

The present invention relates to a video on demand (VOD) service system using a pre-divided transmission scheme and a method thereof, and more particularly, to store a part of content in a set-top box in advance according to a network state and a user wants to watch it. In this case, the rest of the content is downloaded, thereby minimizing network dependency and reducing the initial buffering time for the VOD service, thereby increasing user convenience.

In general, an on-demand video service is a video service that allows a user to watch a desired program at a desired time through a computer or a television (TV) connected to a communication network, and may pause or repeat playback while playing VOD content.

There are two major technologies for providing such VOD services.

The first is streaming technology. When a user selects a desired content, the content is delivered, decoded, and displayed in real time. This method is convenient because it does not have to have a separate storage device in the user premises device, but quality cannot be guaranteed unless the network quality is deteriorated or the function such as QoS is not properly supported.

In other words, if Fast Ethernet supports the speed of 100Mb / s but multiple users share it, it may not be able to guarantee 2 ~ 3Mb / s to a specific subscriber. It becomes impossible. In particular, even in a network where sufficient bandwidth is guaranteed, if burst data occurs due to the characteristics of IP traffic, the transmission speed may be momentarily reduced, causing a break in the video service.

Second is the download method. The download method can guarantee stable quality because the entire content is downloaded to the storage device and then the image is downloaded. However, the download method can take a long time depending on the network situation.

In other words, for high-definition movie content, the total size is several GB, and it takes several tens to several hours to download all of them, and when the various contents are selected, the size limitation of the storage device also occurs.

In order to compensate for the shortcomings of the two methods, a progressive download method is widely used as a compromise technology. This is not a way of downloading the entire content, but rather downloading some of the content first and downloading the rest of the content while operating it.

However, since the progressive download method starts downloading after the user selects the content, there is a problem that it may take a long time to watch the selected content.

In addition, the conventional progressive download method is very dependent on the network state by downloading without considering the network situation, there is a problem that takes a long time for downloading the real-time content when the network situation is not good.

Therefore, in order to solve the above-described problem, the present invention downloads and stores a part of the VOD content in advance when the network condition is good in consideration of the network state and the size of the content file, and downloads the remaining part when the user requests play later. The purpose is to increase the user's convenience by receiving and viewing.

On-demand video service system using a pre-split transmission method according to an embodiment of the present invention for achieving the above object, a VOD server for storing and managing VOD content for Video On Demand (VOD) service, and network A network monitoring device that monitors the status to determine a pre-download policy and a download time zone for a specific VOD content, and requests the VOD server to pre-download a portion of the VOD content, and a portion of the VOD content downloaded from the VOD server. And a set-top box configured to provide a VOD service by receiving a real-time download of the remaining portion of the VOD content from a VOD server later.

In addition, the on-demand video service system using a pre-division transmission method according to an embodiment of the present invention, in the on-demand video service system having a VOD server and a set-top box, collects the network average speed information through the Internet network and the VOD server A data collection unit that collects content full size information and running time information to be pre-downloaded from the user; and pre-downloading which determines the size of pre-downloading content using the network average speed information, the content full size information, and running time information. And a network monitoring device including a policy determining unit and a pre-downloading time determining unit configured to analyze a network usage pattern of each user or determine a part of the content to be pre-downloaded at a low usage time period through real-time monitoring. One .

In addition, the on-demand video service method using a pre-segmented transmission method according to an embodiment of the present invention, the first process of collecting network state information and information about the content to be pre-downloaded, the network state information and the content to be pre-downloaded The second step of determining the size of the content to be pre-downloaded by using the information on, and by analyzing the user's network usage pattern or real-time monitoring to determine that the part of the pre-downloaded content to be pre-downloaded during the low frequency of use And a third step of pre-downloading and storing as much as the predetermined size of pre-downloaded time in the low frequency of use, and playing a part of the pre-downloaded content at the same time when the user is requested to play the VOD content. To Time downloaded characterized in that it comprises a fourth step of continuing the reproduction of the VOD content.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described in detail a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

The VOD service system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes a set top box 100, a modem 200, a central office terminal (COT) 300, a VOD server 400, and a network monitoring device 500.

The set-top box 100 is a device for providing a VOD service, and downloads VOD content to the VOD server 100 to provide a VOD service in real time or in a desired time zone through a TV.

The modem 200 is connected between the set top box 100 and the Internet network to control the communication connection for the VOD service.

The COT 300 is a part installed in a central office (CO) among subscriber transmission devices, and becomes an optical line terminal (OLT) in an optical transmission device and a digital subscriber line access multiplexer (DSLAM) in a DSL device.

The VOD server 400 provides the VOD content for the VOD service to the set-top box, and transmits the corresponding VOD content information when the network monitoring device 500 requests the information on the specific VOD content.

The network monitoring apparatus 500 determines the pre-download policy and download time zone for specific VOD content by monitoring the network state, and requests the VOD server 400 to pre-download the corresponding VOD content.

To this end, the network monitoring apparatus 500 includes a data collector 510, a pre-download policy determiner 520, and a pre-download time zone determiner 530.

The data collector 510 collects information for checking a network state through the Internet network and collects content information (content size and running time information, etc.) to be pre-downloaded from the VOD server 400. At this time, the data collection unit 510 is a station equipment such as an optical line terminal (OLT) of a passive optical network (PON), a digital subscriber line access multiplexer (DSLAM) of xDSL, as well as an xDSL modem or a PON that is a subscriber premises device. It collects network status information from devices such as ONT (Optical Network Terminal) / ONU (Optical Network Unit). Information about the network status includes information such as network transmission speed, packet loss, jitter, delay, and the like.

The pre-download policy determining unit 520 determines the pre-download size using the method shown in Equation 1 below using the total size of the content to be pre-downloaded, the average network transmission speed, and the content running time information.

P = Q-(V * T) / 8

P: Dictionary download size (Byte)

Q: Content Size (Byte)

V: network average transmission speed (b / s)

T: Content Running Time (second)

In this case, the pre-download policy determination unit 520 sets the content (preferred content, series content, etc.), new content, recommended content through analysis of the content usage pattern of the user, etc. previously selected by the user as content to be pre-downloaded, and the corresponding content. It is preferable to receive information about user content from the data collection unit 510.

The pre-download policy determination method of the pre-download policy determination unit 520 will be described with reference to FIGS. 4A and 4B as follows.

As shown in FIG. 4A, the pre-download size is proportional to the total running time of the content or the total size of the content, and as shown in FIG. 4B, the pre-download size is inversely proportional to the network average transmission speed.

That is, if the overall size of the content is constant, the pre-download size is changed according to the average network transmission speed. In particular, the lower the average network transmission speed, the more content must be downloaded beforehand. If the network average transmission speed is constant, the pre-download size is determined according to the size of the content. In other words, the larger the total size of the content and the longer the running time, the more pre-download size is required.

For example, if the VOD content is more than 1 hour of movie when the average network speed is constant, it is preferable to pre-download 1-5% of the total size of the content. The higher the quality of the transmitted content, the lower the transmission speed, the more capacity must be pre-downloaded. On the other hand, if the size of the content is very small (the running time is 30 seconds or less), it is desirable to pre-download most of the content because 1% is less than 1 second, so there is little effect of pre-downloading. The impact is minimal.

In addition, since the pre-download policy determination unit 520 is limited in the storage space of the set-top box 100, based on the information on the size of the content stored in the pre-determination of the policy to delete or limit the new download if necessary It is preferable to carry out.

In addition, the pre-download policy determination unit 520 determines that an appropriate download policy is controlled by adjusting this because when the type of provided content is very large, even if the pre-download size of the individual content is small, the total size may be limited due to storage space. It is preferable to carry out.

In this case, although the present invention discloses an embodiment of determining the pre-download policy in the network monitoring apparatus 500, it may be performed through the VOD server 400, the set-top box 100 or a separate server.

Meanwhile, the pre-download time zone determination unit 530 determines a time zone for downloading the content to be pre-downloaded. That is, the pre-download time zone determining unit 530 determines to pre-download the time zone during which the network average speed is high and the low frequency of use, and determines the download time zone based on the network state information received from the data collection unit 510. . There are two ways to determine the time zone: batch and individual. The collective method is to perform a pre-download to all the user terminals during the time when the traffic of the entire network is the lowest, and the individual method is to perform each pre-download based on the information of the individual user terminal. While the former is easy and convenient to implement, it does not reflect the network usage of individual users, which is inefficient. There can be a wide variety of methods, but the simplest is to pre-download if there is no traffic for a certain period of time (30 minutes, 1 hour, etc.).

That is, the pre-download time zone determination unit 530 analyzes the network usage pattern of each user or determines the time zone not used through real-time monitoring, or determines that the content is collectively transmitted in the time zone where the network usage frequency is the lowest. It is preferable. To do this, it is desirable to have the home devices (modems, set-top boxes, other network devices) turned on.

Hereinafter, a method of providing a VOD service through the VOD content division dictionary download according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 2.

First, the network monitoring device 500 collects content information (content size of content, running time information, etc.) to be pre-downloaded from the VOD server 400, collects traffic through the Internet network, and grasps the network state based on this. The pre-download policy and the download time zone are determined (S101).

When the pre-download policy and the download time zone are determined through the above process, the pre-download is requested to the VOD server 400 (S102). In this case, the pre-download policy refers to the data size to be pre-downloaded, and is determined using the total size of the content to be downloaded, the average transmission speed of the network, and the content running time information.

Thus, the VOD server 400 performs a pre-download to the set-top box 100 in response to the pre-download request (S103). At this time, it is preferable to download in advance by the size determined by the network monitoring device 500.

Through the above process, when a part of each content is stored in the set-top box 100 and receives a request for playing a specific VOD content from the user (S104), the VOD content is decoded and started to be reproduced (S105). The VOD server 400 requests the download of the remaining portion of the corresponding content that is not downloaded (S106).

Accordingly, the VOD server 400 downloads the remaining part of the corresponding content in real time (S107), and the set-top box 100 combines some of the pre-downloaded content with the remaining part downloaded in real time, thereby cutting off the VOD service. You can continue to provide without.

Hereinafter, referring to FIG. 3, a process S101 of determining the traffic collection and pre-download policy and the download time slot of FIG. 2 will be described in detail.

First, the data collection unit 510 collects information (such as traffic) for checking network status and content information (content size and running time information, etc.) to be pre-downloaded from the VOD server 400 through the Internet network ( S201).

Thereafter, the pre-download policy determination unit 520 determines the pre-download size using the total size of the content to be pre-downloaded, the network average transmission speed, and the content running time information (S202). That is, the pre-download policy determination unit 520 determines the pre-download size larger as the total size of the content, the longer the running time, the lower the network average transmission speed.

When the pre-download policy is determined through the process S202, the pre-download time zone determination unit 530 determines the time zone for downloading the content to be pre-downloaded (S203). To this end, the pre-download time zone determination unit 530 preferably selects a time zone that does not affect other network services.

Thus, the pre-download time zone determination unit 530 checks whether the determined time zone has arrived (S204), and if so, requests a pre-download to the VOD server 400 so that the pre-download is performed (S205).

As described above, the present invention is to effectively deliver video-on-demand service in an environment where network performance is not suitable for real-time streaming, and a portion of content is used in a time zone where network usage frequency is low in consideration of network average transmission speed, content total size and running time. After downloading in advance, the rest of the content is downloaded and screened by the user's choice.

As described above, the present invention downloads and stores a portion of the VOD content in advance according to the network state, and later allows the user to download and watch the remaining portion when the user requests a play, thereby minimizing network dependency and providing user convenience. There is an effect to increase.

In addition, the preferred embodiment of the present invention for the purpose of illustration, those skilled in the art will be able to various modifications, changes, replacements and additions through the spirit and scope of the appended claims, such modifications and changes are the following claims Should be seen as belonging to.

Claims

A VOD server for storing and managing VOD content for a Video On Demand (VOD) service;

A network monitoring device configured to monitor a network state to determine a pre-download policy and a download time zone for specific VOD content, and request a pre-download of a part of the VOD content to the VOD server; And

Using a pre-segmented transmission method characterized in that it comprises a set-top box for storing a portion of the VOD content downloaded from the VOD server, and later receives the remaining portion of the VOD content from the VOD server to provide a VOD service Video on demand system.

The network monitoring apparatus of claim 1,

A data collecting unit collecting network state information through an internet network and collecting information on content to be pre-downloaded from the VOD server;

A pre-download policy determining unit configured to determine a pre-download size of the pre-downloaded content by using the network state information and the information on the pre-downloaded content; And

On-demand type using a pre-split transmission method, characterized in that it comprises a pre-download time zone determining unit for determining a portion of the pre-downloaded content to be pre-downloaded in a low-use time period by analyzing a user's network usage pattern or real-time monitoring Video service system.

The method of claim 2, wherein the pre-download policy determination unit,

On-demand video service system using a pre-segmented transmission method characterized in that the size of the pre-downloading is determined using the total size of the content to be pre-downloaded, the running time information, and the network average transmission speed received from the data collection unit.

The method of claim 2, wherein the pre-download policy determination unit,

Pre-segmented transmission method characterized in that the content selected by the user in advance, new content, or recommended content through analysis of the content usage pattern of the user is set as the content to be pre-downloaded, and the size to pre-download the corresponding user content is determined. On-demand video service system.

The method of claim 2, wherein the pre-download policy determination unit,

If the total size of the content to be pre-downloaded is constant, the pre-download size is increased as the network average transmission speed is low. If the network average transmission speed is constant, the pre-download size is larger as the total size of the content to be pre-downloaded is larger. On-demand video service system using a pre-segmented transmission method, characterized in that for increasing.

In the on-demand video service system having a VOD server and a set-top box,

A data collector configured to collect network average speed information through an internet network and collect total size information and running time information to be pre-downloaded from the VOD server;

A pre-download policy determining unit which determines a size of pre-downloading of the content by using the network average speed information, the content total size information, and the running time information; And

Pre-split transmission method characterized in that it comprises a network monitoring device including a pre-downloading time determining unit for determining a portion of the content to be pre-downloaded in a low-use time period by analyzing the network usage pattern of each user or through real-time monitoring On-demand video service system.

The method of claim 6, wherein the pre-download policy determination unit,

A first step of collecting network state information and information on content to be pre-downloaded;

A second step of determining a size to pre-download the content using the network state information and the information on the content to be pre-downloaded;

A third step of determining that a part of the content to be pre-downloaded is pre-downloaded at a time when usage frequency is low by analyzing a user's network usage pattern or real-time monitoring;

After downloading and storing the pre-downloaded size as much as the predetermined pre-downloading size during the low frequency of use, when the user is requested to play the VOD content, the user plays a part of the pre-downloaded content and downloads the remaining part of the content while receiving the VOD content. And a fourth process of continuing playback of the video.

The method of claim 8, wherein the second process,

The pre-segmented transmission method is characterized by determining the size of the pre-downloading by receiving the network average transmission speed information, the total size of the content to be pre-downloaded, and the show time information of the content to be pre-downloaded from the data collection unit. On-demand video service method.

The method of claim 9, wherein the second process,

If the total size of the content to be pre-downloaded is constant, the pre-download size is increased as the network average transmission speed is low. If the network average transmission speed is constant, the pre-download size is increased as the total size of the content to be pre-downloaded is larger. On-demand video service method using a pre-segmented transmission method characterized by increasing.