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  Apparatus and method for peer to peer vod systemRelated Patent Categories: Interactive Video Distribution Systems, User-requested Video Program System, Video-on-demandThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20080104643. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 10/454,701, filed Jun. 4, 2003. FIELD OF INVENTION [0002] The invention relates to a Video-On-Demand (VOD) system and method, more particularly to a true Video-On-Demand (VOD) system and method in a peer to peer network. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] In an ideal VOD system or general Media-On-Demand system, end-users may choose to play their own favorite program at whatever time they like and can conduct pausing, playing forward, playing backward as easily as control of a VCR. However, in a conventional VOD system, all streams are transmitted from the video service providing apparatus. In consideration that such requirement imposes a very heavy burden on the server and network bandwidth, a typical video program has the size of several gigabytes and a common Media-On-Demand system should serve thousands of people simultaneously. How to deliver these programs to end-users at their wishes and keep the expense of servers and network as low as possible is the crucial problem in a Media-On-Demand system. [0004] Many methods have been proposed in order to solve the problem. These range, from the early batch policy to the later skyscraper and hierarchy merging algorithm, which considerably reduce workload of the server and network bandwidth. However, even the latest method still requires the server to possess tremendous throughput which exceeds the capacity of a general-purpose server. [0005] A VOD delivery system and method is disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 6,018,359, the method uses a static merging algorithm and multicast technique to transmit video data from a server to clients, wherein the clients are required to receive at least two channels at the same time and adjust their receiving channel according to the predefined pattern. However, the technical solution disclosed in the patent has two shortcomings: [0006] 1. The server must multicast the same video program repeatedly to the clients, no matter whether there is any receiver, thus resulting in fixed overhead of the server and the network. Therefore, even if the video program is not a quite popular one and is not viewed by many viewers, the server must still multicast the same program repeatedly, thus resulting in a tremendous waste of resources. [0007] 2. All the video program streams are sent from the server without considering that the clients may share some workload for the server, thereby resulting in over heavy workload of the server. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0008] In order to solve the problem, there is provided a peer to peer video-on-demand (VOD) system, in which the clients are able to share some workload and network bandwidth for a server, only a root stream is sent from the server, and the catching up streams are sent from one of those clients who appears before a new client in the pre-order merging tree. [0009] According to the above, the invention provides a method used in a peer to peer VOD system for providing video programs among a video program providing apparatus and a plurality of clients which are connected through a peer to peer network. An example method comprises the steps of: [0010] (1) in response to a request for a video program from a first client (A) among the plurality of clients, transmitting the requested video program to the first client on a first channel; [0011] (2) in response to a request for the same video program from a second client (B) among the plurality of clients, allocating a second channel for transmitting video program; [0012] (3) notifying the first client (A) which receives the same video program on the first channel prior to the second client (B), to forward the video program to the second client (B) on the second channel from the beginning (a) of the video program which has been received from the video program providing apparatus and stored by the first client (A); [0013] (4) controlling the second client (B) to receive and store the video program transmitted from the video program providing apparatus on the first channel in synchronization with the first client (A); [0014] (5) in response to a notification that the video program received from the first client (A) by the second client (B) reaches a starting point (b) of the program which was received from the video program providing apparatus and stored by the second client (B), merging the second channel into the first channel, and notifying the first client (A) to stop forwarding the video program to the second client (B). [0015] The method further comprises the step of: [0016] (6) in response to the merging of the second channel and the first channel, while continuing receiving and storing the succeeding video program transmitted from the video program providing apparatus on the first channel, the second client (B) reading and playing the stored video program in FIFO (first in first out) manner to ensure the continuity of the video program being played on the second client (B). [0017] The invention also provides a video program providing apparatus in a peer to peer VOD system, connected to a plurality of clients through a peer to peer network, the video program providing apparatus comprising: transmitting means, in response to a request for a video program from a first client (A) among the plurality of clients, for transmitting the requested video program to the first client on a first channel; channel allocating means, in response to a request for the same video program from a second client (B) among the plurality of clients, for allocating a second channel for transmitting the video program; [0018] forwarding designation means, in response to the request for the video program from the second client (B), for notifying the first client (A) which receives the same video program on the first channel prior to the second client (B) to forward the video program to the second client (B) on the second channel from the beginning (a) of the video program which has been received from the video program providing apparatus and stored by the first client (A), and for controlling the second client (B) to receive and store the video program transmitted from the video program providing apparatus on the first channel in synchronization with the first client (A); wherein, in response to a notification that the video program received from the first client (A) by the second client (B) reaches a starting point (b) of the program which was received and stored by the second client (B) from the video program providing apparatus, the channel allocating means merges the second channel into the first channel, and the forwarding designation means notifies the first client (A) to stop forwarding the video program to the second client (B). [0019] The invention further provides a peer to peer VOD system, comprising a video program providing apparatus and a plurality of clients which are connected through a peer to peer network, wherein: each of the clients comprising: storing unit for storing a video program received from the video program providing apparatus by the client; and forwarding unit for forwarding the video program to other clients; the video program providing apparatus comprising: transmitting means, in response to a request for a video program from a first client (A) among the clients, for transmitting the requested video program to the first client on a first channel; [0020] channel allocating means, in response to a request for the same video program from a second client (B) among the plurality of clients, for allocating a second channel for transmitting the video program; forwarding designation means, in response to the request for the video program from the second client (B), for notifying the first client (A) which receives the same video program on the first channel before the second client (B) to forward the video program to the second client on the second channel from the beginning (a) of the video program which has been received from the video program providing apparatus and stored by the first client (A), and for controlling the second client (B) to receive and store the video program transmitted from the video program providing apparatus on the first channel in synchronization with the first client (A); wherein, in response to a notification that the video program received from the first client (A) by the second client (B) reaches a starting point (b) of the program which was received and stored by the second client (B) from the video program providing apparatus, the channel assigning means merges the second channel into the first channel, and the forwarding designation means notifies the first client (A) to stop sending the video program to the second client (B). [0021] The invention still further provides a method of forwarding a video program received from a video program providing apparatus, wherein the method comprising: receiving a requested video program on a first channel; storing the received video program; and forwarding the stored video program to another client on a second channel in accordance with a control signal from the video program providing apparatus. [0022] Along with the rapid development of computer technology, the strong processing capacity of current personal computers (PCs) and the application of a broadband network make it possible to share some workload for the server. Therefore the invention can be implemented using latest hierarchy (dynamic) merging algorithm, point to point scheme, multicast network infrastructure and client PCs with strong capacity, the transmission capacity of system data can be extended greatly without bringing a lot of workload to the server, and save the network bandwidth. DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0023] The above and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: [0024] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an example embodiment of the structure of the system according to the invention; [0025] FIG. 2 is a flow chart of a method according to an embodiment of the invention; Continue reading... Full patent description for Apparatus and method for peer to peer vod system Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Apparatus and method for peer to peer vod system patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. Each week you receive an email with patent applications related to your keywords. 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