Dynamically Switched Multicast Delivery

Abstract

According to some aspects, methods and systems may include receiving, by computing device from one or more client devices, a plurality of requests for one or more content items formatted in a first format and determining whether to multicast the one or more content items based on a data structure configured with one or more conditions associated with multicasting content. The methods and systems may also include transmitting, to the one or more client devices, the one more content items via one or more multicast streams if the requests meet a first condition of the one or more conditions. The methods and systems may also include formatting the one or more content items in a second format prior to the transmitting if network resources fail to meet a second condition of the one or more conditions.

1 . A method comprising:
 receiving, by a computing device and from a plurality of client devices, a plurality of requests for a content item;   selecting, for each of the plurality of client devices, between multicast delivery and unicast delivery to deliver, the content item, wherein the selecting is based on: 
 a determination of whether a quantity of the plurality of requests satisfies a threshold; and 
 an elapsed amount of time since one of the plurality of client devices requested the content item; and 
 initiating, based on the selecting, a multicast delivery to deliver, to one or more of the plurality of client devices, the content item. 
   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 after initiating the multicast delivery, monitoring network resources; and   changing the multicast delivery to unicast delivery to deliver, to the one or more of the plurality of client devices and based on a determination that the network resources do not satisfy a threshold value, at least a portion of a second version of the content item.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 sending, to a first subset of the plurality of client devices and via one or more multicast streams, the content item; and   sending, to a second subset of the plurality of client devices and via one or more unicast streams, the content item.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the multicast delivery comprises sending, to the one or more of the plurality of client devices via an Internet Protocol (IP) or a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), the content item. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the initiating the multicast delivery comprises:
 initiating a multicast stream for the content item, wherein the multicast stream is associated with a multicast source identifier, a multicast group identifier, and a port identifier; and   sending, to the one or more of the plurality of client devices, the multicast source identifier, the multicast group identifier, and the port identifier.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving, from a second plurality of client devices, a second plurality of requests for a second version of the content item; and   initiating a unicast delivery to deliver, to each of the second plurality of client devices and based on a determination that a quantity of the second plurality of requests does not satisfy the threshold, the second version of the content item.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 determining a quantity of multicast streams based on a quantity of requests for one or more of a plurality of content items during a time period, a quantity of current multicast streams being transmitted, a quantity of current unicast streams being transmitted, and available network resources; and   initiating, based on the determined quantity of multicast streams, a multicast delivery to deliver a subset of the plurality of content items.   
     
     
         8 . A method comprising:
 receiving, by a computing device and from a plurality of client devices, a plurality of requests for a plurality of content items;   determining a quantity of multicast streams based on a quantity of requests for one or more of the plurality of content items during a time period, a quantity of current multicast streams being transmitted, a quantity of current unicast streams being transmitted, and available network resources; and   initiating, based on the determined quantity of multicast streams, a multicast delivery to deliver, to one or more of the plurality of client devices, a subset of the plurality of content items.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the intuiting the multicast delivery comprises initiating a multicast delivery to deliver only the most requested content item of the plurality of content items. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the determining the quantity of multicast streams is further based on characteristics of content being transmitted via multicast and unicast delivery. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the determining the quantity of multicast streams is further based on a resolution, a bitrate, a codec, or a streaming format of content being transmitted via multicast and unicast delivery. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the determining the quantity of multicast streams is further based on locations of multicast servers transmitting one or more multicast streams associated the multicast delivery. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the determining the quantity of multicast streams is further based on estimated future network resources. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising:
 changing, based on the determined quantity of multicast streams, from unicast delivery to multicast delivery to deliver, to one of the plurality of client devices, one of the plurality of content items.   
     
     
         15 . A method comprising:
 receiving, by a computing device and from a plurality of client devices, a plurality of requests for a plurality of content items;   determining an optimal quantity of multicast streams based on a quantity of requests for one or more of the plurality of content items during a time period, a quantity of current multicast streams being transmitted, a quantity of current unicast streams being transmitted, and available network resources; and   changing, based on the determined optimal quantity of multicast streams, from unicast delivery to multicast delivery to deliver, to one or more of the plurality of client devices, a subset of the plurality of content items.   
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the changing from unicast delivery to multicast delivery comprises initiating a multicast delivery to deliver only the most requested content item of the plurality of content items. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the determining the optimal quantity of multicast streams is further based on characteristics of content being transmitted via multicast and unicast delivery. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein the determining the optimal quantity of multicast streams is further based on a resolution, a bitrate, a codec, or a streaming format of content being transmitted via multicast and unicast delivery. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the determining the optimal quantity of multicast streams is further based on locations of multicast servers transmitting one or more multicast streams associated the multicast delivery. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the determining the optimal quantity of multicast streams is further based on estimated future network resources.