CN101198025A - Method and device for improving network TV user experience - Google Patents

Abstract

The embodiment of the present invention provides a method and device for improving user experience of Internet TV, and the method and device belong to the communication field. The method includes: setting data capable of buffering at least one group-of-picture video on the user terminal; in the case of channel switching or judging packet loss/wrong packet, according to the received information of user terminals watching the same channel in the local area, the The user terminals watching the same channel in this area form a terminal group; send a request message to the user terminal of the terminal group; receive the information corresponding to the request message sent by the user terminal of the terminal group, and will correspond to the information of the request message The information is decoded and played. The specific embodiment of the present invention also provides a device for improving user experience of Internet TV and a device for sending user terminal information. The method and device can reduce operation and maintenance costs, and reduce data transmission volume of core network or backbone network.

Description

Method and device for improving network TV user experience

technical field

The invention relates to the field of network communication, in particular to a method and device for improving user experience of network television.

Background technique

IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) is a network-based technology and service. As people's understanding and application of the network increase year by year, IPTV applications are becoming more and more extensive. In IPTV, there are mainly the following two question:

1) Video delay caused by channel switching

Commonly used video compression technologies in IPTV networks include MPEG2, H264, etc. The basic technical principles of these video compression technologies are similar. Compression can be divided into intra-frame compression and inter-frame compression. Intra-frame compression is to directly compress a frame image. However, this compression method cannot be transmitted on the bandwidth of ordinary broadband network transmission, so inter-frame compression must be used. Inter-frame compression only introduces some basic frames to record all the information of a picture, while other frames only record relative to the basic frame. The change, which can greatly improve the compression ratio, so that it can be transmitted on ordinary broadband networks. The following uses the MPEG format as an example to illustrate how to transmit a video compressed between frames on a broadband network.

MPEG video compression coding includes three elements: the basic frame is the I frame (Intra-coded frame), the forward predictive frame is the P frame (Predictive frame) and the bidirectional predictive frame is the B frame (Bi-predictive), of which the I frame is the basis Frame, which records all the information of a picture, P frame records the change relative to the I frame or the previous P frame, B frame records the difference information between the I frame and the P frame or between adjacent P frames, and a set of continuous The IPB picture is called a picture group GOP (GROUP OF PICTURE). The user terminal must get an I frame when decoding to start decoding. If an I frame is missed during channel switching, it only needs to wait for a GOP time (usually 0.5s to several seconds) until the next I frame is received. Start decoding, resulting in video delay when switching channels, affecting the user experience of Internet TV.

2) Video distortion caused by packet loss/wrong packet

Because IPTV is transmitted through ordinary broadband networks, and the packet loss rate of broadband networks is usually only 10e-4, while video services require a packet loss rate of less than 10e-6. Since the packet loss rate cannot meet the requirements of video services, The distortion of the video has affected the user experience of the Internet TV.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problem (1) and problem (2), the prior art provides a method for improving user experience of IPTV, and the method includes the following steps as shown in Figure 1:

Step 11, setting a cache server for storing channel content on the core network;

The caching server in this step can be one or more, and the content of the storage channel can also be I frame, I frame+P frame or store all frames.

Step 12, when the channel of the user terminal is switched or packet loss/wrong packet occurs, the set-top box STB (Set top Box) requests a message from the cache server as needed;

Step 13: After receiving the channel content corresponding to the request message sent by the cache server, the STB decodes the channel content and resumes video playback.

In the process of realizing the present invention, the inventor finds that the method described in the prior art has the following problems:

1) Higher cost

Owing to the need to deploy a cache server in the network, operation and maintenance costs are increased.

2) The core network or backbone network transmits more data

In order to allow a single cache server to manage more user terminals, it is generally deployed at a higher location, such as the core network or backbone network of a metropolitan area network. In this way, when sending stored channel content to user terminals, the core network or the core network must be added. The amount of data transmitted by the backbone network occupies a large amount of bandwidth of the core network or backbone network.

Contents of the invention

In view of the above-mentioned problems in the prior art, the embodiments of the present invention provide a method and device for improving user experience of IPTV. The method and device can reduce operation and maintenance costs, and reduce data transmission volume of core network or backbone network.

A specific embodiment of the present invention provides a method for improving user experience of Internet TV, the method comprising:

Setting data capable of caching at least one group-of-picture video on the user terminal;

In the case of channel switching or judgment of packet loss/wrong packet, according to the received information of user terminals watching the same channel in the local area, the user terminals watching the same channel in the local area form a terminal group;

sending a request message to a user terminal of the terminal group;

receiving the information corresponding to the request message sent by the user terminals of the terminal group, decoding and playing the information corresponding to the request message.

The specific embodiment of the present invention also provides a device for improving user experience of Internet TV, and the device includes:

Data cache unit: used to cache data of at least one group-of-picture video;

Judgment unit: used to judge whether it is channel switching or packet loss/wrong packet;

Receiving unit: used for receiving the information of user terminals watching the same channel in the local area sent by the user terminal information sending device when the judging unit judges that it is channel switching or packet loss/wrong packet;

Terminal group unit: used to form a terminal group for user terminals watching the same channel in the area;

A sending unit: configured to send a request message to a user terminal of the terminal group;

A receiving video unit: configured to receive information corresponding to the request message sent by the user terminal of the terminal group;

Decoding unit: used to decode and play the information corresponding to the request message received by the receiving unit.

The specific embodiment of the present invention also provides a device for sending user terminal information, and the device includes:

Acquisition unit: used to obtain the information of user terminals watching the same channel in the area;

Sending unit: used to send the information of user terminals watching the same channel in the local area.

It can be seen from the technical solutions provided above that the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention speed up channel switching or resume playback by receiving required information from the user terminals of the terminal group, thereby reducing the deployment of cache servers and reducing the cost of operation and maintenance. Maintenance cost; and because the data transmission between the user terminals of the terminal group is not transmitted on the core network or the backbone network, the amount of data transmission on the core network or the backbone network is also reduced.

Description of drawings

FIG. 1 is a flow chart of a method for improving user experience of IPTV described in the prior art.

Fig. 2 is a flow chart of the method for improving user experience of IPTV described in the specific embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a method for improving user experience of IPTV according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention.

Fig. 4 is a structural diagram of a device for improving user experience of IPTV described in a specific embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 5 is a structural diagram of a device for sending user terminal information according to a specific embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed ways

The embodiment of the present invention provides a method for improving user experience of Internet TV.

The method includes the following steps as shown in Figure 2:

Step 21, setting data capable of caching at least one group-of-picture video on the user terminal;

Step 22. In the case of channel switching or packet loss/wrong packet determination, according to the received information of user terminals watching the same channel in the local area, the user terminals watching the same channel in the local area form a terminal group;

The case of judging packet loss/wrong packet in this step may be the situation of judging packet loss/wrong packet when the video playback cannot be decoded.

Wherein, the information of the user terminals watching the same channel in the local area is sent by the user terminal information sending device. The user terminal information sending device can be an application layer server, an access device or a border gateway device; the above step 22 can also be to receive the information of the user terminals watching the same channel in the area at a set time interval, so as to maintain the information of the terminal group effectiveness. This operation may be performed by a user terminal. The acquisition of the information of the user terminals in the local area through the network can be realized by the following method,

Step 23, sending a request message to the user terminal of the terminal group;

The request message in this step may be a request message with time information; or a request message with required information. The message can also be a request message with other information. The specific implementation of the present invention is not limited to the specific method of the request message. The request message only needs to allow the user terminal of the terminal group to send the information corresponding to the request message. . There may be one or more user terminals in the user terminal group in this step.

Step 24, receiving information corresponding to the request message sent by the user terminal of the terminal group;

The information corresponding to the request message in this step can be video information corresponding to the request message, and the video information can be an I frame, an I frame+P frame corresponding to the request message, or a GOP corresponding to the request message ; It can also be audio information, but the specific implementation manner of the present invention does not limit the above information.

Step 25. Decode and play the information corresponding to the request message. All the above steps can be completed by the user terminal.

The above-mentioned access equipment can be a digital subscriber line access multiplexer DSLAM (DSL AccessMultiplexer), an access switch or an optical line terminal OLT (Optical Line Terminal), etc.; the above-mentioned border gateway equipment can be a service router, etc.

The receiving information of user terminals watching the same channel in the above step 22 may be one of the following methods, or a combination of the following methods may be used to receive information of user terminals. The specific implementation manners of the present invention are not limited to the specific manner of acquiring the information of the user terminals watching the same channel in the local area. The local area can be one or more residential areas, or it can be an area managed by one or more access devices or an area managed by one or more border gateway devices, etc. The area can be set according to the actual situation Certainly.

Method A, receiving the information of the user terminals watching the same channel in the local area sent by the application layer server;

Method B. Receive information about user terminals watching the same channel in the local area sent by the access device;

Method C. Receive information about user terminals watching the same channel in the local area sent by the border gateway device.

In order to better describe the method described in the embodiment of the present invention, the specific embodiment of the present invention is described in conjunction with accompanying drawing 3 now:

Embodiment 1: A method for improving the user experience of Internet TV provided by the specific implementation of the present invention. The technical scenario of this embodiment is: the following operations are operations during channel switching, and the information corresponding to the request message is the corresponding For the GOP of the above request message, it is the user terminal 1 that completes the operation of this embodiment, and this area is an area managed by a digital subscriber line access multiplexer. The method comprises the steps of:

Step 31, setting data capable of buffering at least one GOP video on the user terminal;

Step 32, the user terminal 1 judges whether it is channel switching; if the channel switching is judged, perform the following steps, otherwise continue to play;

Step 33, the user terminal 1 receives the information of the user terminals watching the same channel in the local area sent by the user terminal information sending device;

The specific method for realizing this step can be as follows: the user terminal 1 sends a request to the user terminal information sending device that needs information about user terminals watching the same channel in the local area, and the user terminal information sending device will watch the same channel in the local area after receiving the request. The information of the user terminal of the channel is sent to the user terminal 1 . The above-mentioned user terminal sending device has been described above, and will not be repeated here. The same channel in this step may be the channel after user terminal 1 performs channel switching.

Step 34, the user terminal 1 forms a terminal group with user terminals watching the same channel in the local area;

Step 35, user terminal 1 sends a request message to other user terminals in the terminal group;

The request message in this step may be a request message with a time or a request message of other structures, and the request message only needs to allow other user terminals in the terminal group to send information corresponding to the request message. User terminal 1 in this step may send a request message to one other user terminal in the terminal group, or send a request message to multiple or all other user terminals in the terminal group.

Step 36, user terminal 1 receives the GOP corresponding to the request message sent by other user terminals in the terminal group;

Step 37, the user terminal 1 decodes the GOP and resumes playing. Wherein, the playing may be video playing or audio playing.

When the technical scenario is a packet loss/wrong packet situation, it is only necessary to replace step 32 in the above steps with the following operation. The user terminal 1 judges whether it is a packet loss/wrong packet. In the case of package, proceed to steps 33-37, otherwise continue to play the video.

The method provided by the embodiment of the present invention accelerates channel switching or resumes video playback by receiving the required information from the user terminals of the terminal group, thereby reducing the deployment of cache servers and reducing operation and maintenance costs; and because the user terminals of the terminal group The data transmission between them is not transmitted on the core network or the backbone network, so the amount of data transmission on the core network or the backbone network is also reduced.

Embodiments of the present invention also provide a device for improving the user experience of Internet TV, as shown in FIG. It is channel switching or packet loss/wrong packet; receiving unit 42: used to receive the user who watches the same channel in the area sent by the user terminal information sending device when the judging unit determines that it is channel switching or packet loss/wrong packet Terminal information; terminal group unit 43: used to form a terminal group with user terminals watching the same channel in this area; sending unit 45: used to send a request message to the user terminals of the terminal group; receiving video unit 46: used to Receive the information corresponding to the request message sent by the user terminal of the terminal group; the decoding unit 47 is used to decode and play the information corresponding to the request message received by the receiving unit, wherein the playing may be a video Play, can also play for audio. The above-mentioned apparatus for improving user experience of IPTV may be a user terminal. The information corresponding to the request message may be: a basic frame corresponding to the request message, a basic frame and a forward prediction frame corresponding to the request message, or a picture group corresponding to the request message.

The receiving unit 42 may include: a time module 421 for setting the interval time; a receiving module 422 for receiving the information of the user terminals watching the same channel in the local area sent by the user terminal information sending device at the set interval time.

The device for improving the user experience of Internet TV described in the specific embodiments of the present invention accelerates channel switching or resumes playback by receiving the required information from the user terminals of the terminal group, thereby reducing the deployment of cache servers and reducing operation and maintenance costs ; and because the data transmission between the user terminals of the terminal group is not transmitted on the core network or the backbone network, the amount of data transmission on the core network or the backbone network is also reduced.

The specific embodiment of the present invention also provides a device for sending user terminal information. As shown in FIG. Send the user terminal information watching the same channel in this area.

The acquisition unit 51 may also include: a local acquisition module 511, used to acquire the information of user terminals watching the same channel under this device in the local area; an external acquisition module 512, used to acquire the information of users watching the same channel under other devices in the local area through the network. User terminal information of the same channel. The sending unit 52 can automatically send the information of the user terminals watching the same channel in the local area, or can send the information of the user terminals watching the same channel in the local area after receiving a request for the information of the user terminals watching the same channel in the local area.

The user terminal information sending device described in the specific embodiments of the present invention sends the user terminal information in the local area to the user terminal, so that the user terminal can form a user terminal group, so that the user terminal can receive the user terminal information from other user terminals in the terminal group. The required information is used to speed up channel switching or resume playback, thereby reducing the deployment of cache servers and reducing operation and maintenance costs; and because the data transmission between user terminals in the terminal group is not transmitted in the core network or backbone network, it also reduces The amount of data transmission on the core network or backbone network. The apparatus may be: an application layer server, an access device, or a border gateway device.

To sum up, the technical solutions provided by the specific embodiments of the present invention have the advantages of reducing operation and maintenance costs, and reducing the amount of data transmission on the core network or the backbone network.

The above is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention, but the scope of protection of the present invention is not limited thereto. Anyone familiar with the technical field can easily think of Changes or substitutions should fall within the protection scope of the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention should be determined by the protection scope of the claims.

Claims (10)

1. a method that improves network television user experience is characterized in that, described method comprises:

The data of at least one picture group video of energy buffer memory are set on user terminal;

Switch or judge under the situation of packet loss/mistake bag at channel,, will watch the user terminal formation set of terminal of same channel in the one's respective area according to the information of watching the user terminal of same channel in the one's respective area that receives;

User terminal to described set of terminal sends a request message;

Receive the information of the corresponding described request message that the user terminal of described set of terminal sends, the information of described corresponding requests message is decoded and play.

2. method according to claim 1 is characterized in that, described request message is:

The request message that has temporal information; Or have a request message of information needed.

3. method according to claim 1 is characterized in that, the information of described corresponding described request message is:

The picture group of corresponding described request message basis frame, corresponding described request message basis frame and forward predicted frame or corresponding described request message.

4. method according to claim 1 is characterized in that, watches in the described reception one's respective area that the information of the user terminal of same channel comprises:

With the information of setting that receives the user terminal of watching same channel in the one's respective area blanking time.

5. a device that improves network television user experience is characterized in that, described device comprises:

Data buffer storage unit: the data that are used at least one picture group video of buffer memory;

Judging unit: be used to judge whether switch or packet loss/mistake bag into channel;

Receiving element: be used under judgment unit judges goes out for the situation that channel switches or packet loss/mistake is wrapped, receiving the information of watching the user terminal of same channel in the one's respective area of user terminal information dispensing device transmission;

The set of terminal unit: the user terminal that is used for watching same channel in the one's respective area constitutes set of terminal;

Transmitting element: be used for sending a request message to the user terminal of described set of terminal;

Receiver, video unit: the information that is used to receive the corresponding described request message that the user terminal of described set of terminal sends;

Decoding unit: the information that is used for corresponding described request message that described receiving element is received is decoded and is play.

6. device according to claim 5 is characterized in that, described receiving element comprises:

Time module is used to set blanking time;

Receiver module is used for to receive the information of watching the user terminal of same channel in the one's respective area of user terminal information dispensing device transmission the blanking time of setting.

7. device according to claim 6 is characterized in that, the information of described corresponding described request message is:

The picture group of corresponding described request message basis frame, corresponding described request message basis frame and forward predicted frame or corresponding described request message.

8. a user terminal information dispensing device is characterized in that, described device comprises:

Acquiring unit: be used to obtain the user terminal information of watching same channel in the one's respective area;

Transmitting element: be used to send the user terminal information of watching same channel in the one's respective area.

9. device according to claim 8 is characterized in that, described acquiring unit comprises:

Local acquisition module is used to obtain the user terminal information of watching same channel under this device in the one's respective area;

The other places acquisition module is used for obtaining the user terminal information of watching same channel under other device in the one's respective area by network.

10. device according to claim 8 is characterized in that, described device is:

Application layer services device, access device or borde gateway equipment.

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