CN111372103A

CN111372103A - Multicast method, device, equipment and computer storage medium

Info

Publication number: CN111372103A
Application number: CN201811605190.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 许静; 于荣国; 王奎
Original assignee: ZTE Corp
Current assignee: ZTE Corp
Priority date: 2018-12-26
Filing date: 2018-12-26
Publication date: 2020-07-03
Anticipated expiration: 2038-12-26
Also published as: WO2020135562A1; CN111372103B

Abstract

The embodiment of the invention provides a multicast method, a device, equipment and a computer storage medium, wherein the method comprises the following steps: acquiring hot channel information, wherein the hot channel information comprises identification information of at least one media service with the highest current playing amount; and adjusting the current multicast service according to the hot spot channel information.

Description

Multicast method, device, equipment and computer storage medium

Technical Field

Embodiments of the present invention relate to, but not limited to, multicast technologies, and in particular, to a multicast method, an apparatus, a device, and a computer storage medium, which can implement control of a multicast service of a live channel in a Content Delivery Network (CDN) operation mode.

Background

With the rapid development of internet technology, the constant popularization of various terminals such as televisions, computers, mobile phones and cameras, and the strong popularization of live broadcast platforms and video application programs (APPs), the number of network video users increases rapidly, so that CDN services are rapidly developed and applied, live broadcast services have evolved into a trend and operation mode, and network bandwidth resources become the focus of different service contention; due to differences in regional facilities, terminal types, and network conditions, user requirements for video bitrate, resolution, and service agreements also vary. The real-time performance of the live broadcast service determines that the problems of network bandwidth cost and equipment capacity are still main factors restricting the quality of service of the CDN in a large-scale user mode, and the problems are usually solved by adopting multicast so as to reduce bandwidth consumption and equipment load.

In the related art, the current multicast service of the CDN is usually preset multicast, that is, multicast is created in advance for some live channels in a CDN service system, and then live services are provided to users. When a user requests a live broadcast service from the CDN system, the service system directly guides the user to join a multicast group. The multicast is a persistent multicast, and the CDN multicast system is difficult to dynamically start and stop the multicast according to the real playing hotspot situation of the user.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the invention provides a multicast method, a multicast device, multicast equipment and a computer storage medium, which can realize starting and stopping multicast according to the real playing hotspot condition of a user.

In order to achieve the above purpose, the technical solution of the embodiment of the present invention is realized as follows:

the embodiment of the invention provides a first multicast method, which comprises the following steps:

acquiring hot channel information, wherein the hot channel information comprises identification information of at least one media service with the highest current playing amount;

and adjusting the current multicast service according to the hot spot channel information.

The embodiment of the invention provides a second multicast method, which comprises the following steps:

generating hotspot channel information, wherein the hotspot channel information comprises identification information of at least one media service with the highest current playing amount;

and sending the hot channel information to a live broadcast management platform, so that the live broadcast management platform adjusts the current multicast service according to the hot channel information.

An embodiment of the present invention provides a multicast device, where the device includes: a first processor and a first memory for storing a computer program operable on the processor; wherein,

the first processor is configured to perform the steps of any one of the first multicast methods described above when running the computer program.

The embodiment of the invention also provides another multicast device, which comprises a second processor and a second memory, wherein the second memory is used for storing a computer program capable of running on the processor; wherein,

the second processor is configured to perform any of the steps of the second multicast method described above when running the computer program.

The embodiment of the invention also provides a multicast device, which comprises: an acquisition module and a first processing module, wherein,

the acquisition module is used for acquiring hot channel information, wherein the hot channel information comprises identification information of at least one media service with the highest current playing amount;

and the first processing module is used for adjusting the current multicast service according to the hot spot channel information.

The embodiment of the invention also provides another multicast device, which comprises: a generating module and a second processing module, wherein,

the system comprises a generating module, a playing module and a playing module, wherein the generating module is used for generating hot spot channel information which comprises identification information of at least one media service with the highest current playing amount;

and the second processing module is used for sending the hot channel information to a live broadcast management platform, so that the live broadcast management platform adjusts the current multicast service according to the hot channel information.

Embodiments of the present invention further provide a computer storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, where the computer program, when executed by a processor, implements the steps of any one of the first multicast methods described above.

Embodiments of the present invention also provide another computer storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, where the computer program, when executed by a processor, implements the steps of any one of the second multicast methods described above.

In the multicast method, the multicast device, the multicast equipment and the computer storage medium provided by the embodiment of the invention, hot channel information is obtained, wherein the hot channel information comprises identification information of at least one media service with the highest current playing amount; and adjusting the current multicast service according to the hot spot channel information. Thus, by adopting the technical scheme of the embodiment of the invention, the dynamic multicast of the live broadcast channel can be realized as required; namely, the multicast can be started and stopped dynamically according to the real-time heat of the channel without presetting the multicast, the complex operation of manually setting the multicast channel is omitted, and the usability is obviously improved.

In another multicast method, apparatus, device and computer storage medium provided in the embodiments of the present invention, hot spot channel information is generated, where the hot spot channel information includes identification information of at least one media service with the highest current playing amount; and sending the hot channel information to a live broadcast management platform, so that the live broadcast management platform adjusts the current multicast service according to the hot channel information. Thus, by adopting the technical scheme of the embodiment of the invention, the dynamic multicast of the live broadcast channel can be realized as required; namely, the multicast can be started and stopped dynamically according to the real-time heat of the channel without presetting the multicast, the complex operation of manually setting the multicast channel is omitted, and the usability is obviously improved.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a media service system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a flowchart of a multicast method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 3-1 is a schematic diagram of a process in which a terminal device a requests HLS live broadcast service in an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 3-2 is a schematic diagram of a process in which a terminal device B requests HLS live broadcast service in an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a single code rate HLS channel dynamic multicast implementation process in the embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of a process in which a terminal device a requests a DASH live broadcast service in an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of a multi-rate DASH channel dynamic multicast implementation process in an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of a process in which a terminal device a requests an MSS live broadcast service in an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of a multi-rate MSS channel dynamic multicast implementation process in an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of a process in which a terminal device a requests an HDS live broadcast service in an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a process for implementing dynamic multicast of a multi-rate HDS channel according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of a multicast apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of a multicast apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 13 is a schematic structural diagram of another multicast apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram of an internal structure of a controller according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 15 is a schematic structural diagram of another multicast device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The present invention will be described in further detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and examples. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are merely illustrative of the invention and are not intended to limit the invention.

In the related technology, the CDN multicast system is difficult to dynamically start and stop multicast according to the real playing hotspot condition of the user, specifically, a channel that does not actually need multicast may also have multicast set, and starting multicast on all channels makes the resource consumption of multicast equipment serious; in addition, when a channel supports multi-code rate service, a live broadcast channel can be provided with a plurality of sub-code rates, if only a part of the sub-code rates are selected for multicast, multicast according to needs cannot be achieved, if all the sub-code rate multicast is started, resource consumption of equipment is doubled, and the weakness is particularly prominent.

Aiming at the problem that the live broadcast channel can not be multicast according to the requirement in the related technology, the embodiment of the invention provides a technical scheme for realizing the multicast according to the requirement, which can be applied to the fields of numerous media services in telecommunication networks such as network televisions, live broadcast platforms and the like; here, the network television may be an interactive network television (IPTV) or the like.

The technical scheme of The embodiment of The invention has various application scenes, and can be applied to multicast services adopting OTT (over The Top) Streaming media technology in a transmission protocol layer, including HLS (HTTP Live Streaming), DASH (dynamic adaptive Streaming over HTTP), MSS (Microsoft smooth Streaming), HDS (http Streaming digital Streaming) and The like, and also can be applied to multicast services adopting Real-Time Streaming protocol (RTSP) Streaming media technology, such as IPTV; here, HTTP is an abbreviation of hypertext transfer Protocol (hypertext Protocol).

The embodiment of the present invention may be implemented based on a media service system, and fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a composition structure of the media service system according to the embodiment of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 1, the system may include a CDN multicast system, a controller, and a terminal system; optionally, the system may further comprise a live source station.

As shown in fig. 1, the CDN multicast system may include a live broadcast management platform and at least one multicast device, and the end system may include an end head-end device and at least one end device.

The CDN multicast system is responsible for transcoding the live broadcast code stream in the unicast form into a multicast code stream for distribution; in the CDN multicast system, a live broadcast management platform is responsible for operation and maintenance management of multicast channel creation and deletion tasks and multicast plans, and meanwhile, the live broadcast management platform can acquire hot channel information from a controller at regular time, dynamically generate a multicast plan of a hot channel (at least one channel with the highest playing amount) according to the acquired hot channel information and send the multicast plan to multicast equipment; when a multicast channel is created or deleted, the live broadcast management platform synchronizes the latest channel distribution information to the controller in time and updates the address information of the multicast equipment where the channel is located; the multicast device can receive a multicast channel creation instruction of the live broadcast management platform, return a source unicast code stream (namely, a unicast media stream shown in fig. 1) from a live broadcast source station, transcode the unicast code stream into a multicast media stream, and provide a multicast stream service for a terminal system; the media content transmission Protocol between the multicast device and the live broadcast source station includes, but is not limited to, HLS, DASH, MSS, HDS, RTSP, Real Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP), and the like.

The controller can receive heartbeat messages reported by the terminal system, locally record and update corresponding contents, wherein the heartbeat messages comprise equipment identification information, equipment addresses and equipment states of the terminal front equipment; the controller can receive channel distribution information sent by the CDN multicast system, locally record and update corresponding content, wherein the channel distribution information comprises a channel Identity (ID) and a multicast equipment address where a channel is located; the controller has scheduling capability, can receive a service redirection request (also called a channel playing request) initiated by the terminal device, the request carries a channel ID and device identification information of the terminal preposition device, and can return redirection information to the terminal device, wherein the redirection information comprises an address of the terminal preposition device, the channel ID and an address of a multicast device where the channel is located; the controller can receive media service real-time playing information reported by the terminal front-end device, and illustratively, the media service real-time playing information contains the IDs of all current playing channels of the terminal devices in the terminal system; the controller has the capacity of counting hot channels, collects the real-time playing information of the media services reported by all the terminal systems at regular time, calculates the hot channels according to the collected real-time playing information of the media services and the set heat threshold value; the controller can send the latest counted hot channel information to the CDN multicast system periodically or according to a hot channel information acquisition request of the CDN multicast system, and specifically send the latest counted hot channel information to the live broadcast management platform; illustratively, the hot channel information contains a channel ID of the hot channel; in practical application, in order to support a large-capacity user, a plurality of controllers can be deployed in a cluster manner, and when a terminal device requests a service, the terminal device is dispatched to the controllers in a load balancing manner. Alternatively, the controller may be applied to scheduling nodes at various levels, such as regional scheduling nodes, provincial scheduling nodes, and the like.

The terminal system is dispersed at the network edge; in the embodiment of the invention, one terminal system can be set, and a plurality of terminal systems can be set; in a terminal system, a terminal device is usually a set top box device or a terminal device such as a mobile phone and a PAD that supports media access and play, and the terminal device can send a service redirection request to a controller, can also send a media service request to a terminal pre-device, and can receive a unicast code stream (i.e., a unicast media stream shown in fig. 1) sent by the terminal pre-device; the terminal front-end equipment is used as front-end component equipment which can directly provide streaming media service for the terminal equipment, can be deployed as independent home equipment, and can also be deployed in a centralized manner with set-top box equipment, a user home gateway or cell broadband access equipment. The terminal preposition device supports the service agent and cache function, can return the source multicast media stream from the CDN multicast system or return the source unicast media stream from the live broadcast source station, and further directly provides the live broadcast stream service for the terminal device; the terminal front-end equipment can report real-time playing information of the media service currently played by the terminal equipment to the controller at regular time, wherein the real-time playing information comprises the ID of the current playing channel of the terminal equipment; in the embodiment of the present invention, the media transmission protocol for the terminal system to interact with the CDN multicast system or the live broadcast source includes, but is not limited to, HLS, DASH, MSS, HDS, RTSP, and RTMP.

Live broadcast source station: the method supports live video service provided for a CDN multicast system or a user terminal in a unicast mode, supports video, audio and subtitle live service, and supports HTTP mode or real-time streaming mode to provide service; the media interaction protocol of the live broadcast source station and the CDN multicast system or the terminal system includes, but is not limited to, HLS, DASH, MSS, HDS, RTSP, and RTMP.

Based on the above description, the following examples are proposed.

First embodiment

A first embodiment of the present invention provides a multicast method, and fig. 2 is a flowchart of the multicast method according to the embodiment of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 2, the flowchart may include:

step S1: the controller generates hot spot channel information, wherein the hot spot channel information comprises identification information of at least one media service with the highest current playing amount.

For the implementation manner of this step, exemplarily, the terminal front-end device in each terminal system corresponds to one terminal device or multiple terminal devices, and the terminal front-end device in each terminal system can send the media service real-time playing information of each corresponding terminal device to the controller; after receiving the media service real-time playing information of each terminal device, the controller can generate hot spot channel information according to the media service real-time playing information of each terminal device.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the media service may include at least one of the following: video services, audio services, subtitle services, and the like.

For the implementation manner of generating the hot channel information according to the media service real-time playing information of each terminal device, a heat threshold value may be determined first, where the heat threshold value is used to indicate the number of paths of parallel multicast services that can be supported by the CDN multicast system to the maximum extent; and generating hot channel information according to the media service real-time playing information of each terminal device and the heat threshold.

For example, when the CDN multicast system can support 10 multicast services at most, the controller may use 10 pieces of channel information with the highest current playing amount as the hot channel information.

In practical application, when the terminal front-end device provides service for the terminal device, the media service real-time playing information of the terminal device can be sent to the controller at regular time, and the media service real-time playing information can include the ID of the current playing channel of the terminal device; after receiving the media service real-time playing information of the terminal equipment sent by the terminal front-end equipment, the controller locally records and updates corresponding content; the controller can collect the real-time playing information of the media service reported by all the terminal front-end devices at regular time, and the hot spot channel information is calculated according to the set heat threshold.

Optionally, each media service corresponds to one channel, the real-time playing information of the media service includes identification information of a currently playing channel, and accordingly, the identification information of the media service is identification information of the corresponding channel.

Optionally, each media service corresponds to a channel and a code rate, and the real-time playing information of the media service further includes: the identification information of the channel of the currently played media service and the channel code rate of the currently played media service; accordingly, the identification information of the media service includes: identification information of the corresponding channel and the corresponding code rate.

Step S2: and the controller sends the hot channel information to the live broadcast management platform.

Here, the controller may send the latest hot channel information to the live broadcast management platform; in one example, the live broadcast management platform may generate a hot spot channel information acquisition request and send the hot spot channel information acquisition request to the controller, and the controller may trigger sending of hot spot channel information according to the hot spot channel information acquisition request, that is, send the latest hot spot channel information to the live broadcast management platform; in another example, the controller may actively send the latest hot channel information to the live broadcast management platform according to a specific period, that is, the live broadcast management platform may periodically receive the latest hot channel information.

Step S3: and the live broadcast management platform adjusts the current multicast service according to the hot spot channel information.

In practical implementation, after receiving the hot channel information returned by the controller, the live broadcast management platform may automatically generate a multicast plan of the hot channel, that is, a hot multicast plan according to a dynamic multicast algorithm, where key information of the multicast plan includes a channel ID, a multicast start time, a multicast end time, a multicast address, and a port.

The following describes an implementation of generating a multicast plan by means of several examples.

Example 1:

when at least one media service with the highest current playing amount exists in the media services which are not multicast, establishing a corresponding multicast service aiming at the media services which are not multicast; that is, when the hot channel has no multicast plan, the multicast plan of the channel is automatically generated, and in a specific example, the duration of the multicast plan may default to 1 hour.

For the implementation manner of creating the corresponding multicast service, illustratively, the live broadcast management platform may send a multicast creation request to the multicast device; the multicast device can create the multicast service according to the received multicast creation request.

In practical application, after receiving a multicast creation request issued by a live broadcast management platform, multicast equipment executes a multicast creation task, can return a source unicast code stream from a live broadcast source station, transcodes the unicast code stream into a multicast media stream and sends the multicast media stream to a specified multicast address and a specified port, and starts multicast service;

example 2:

in at least one media service with the highest current playing amount, a media service which is currently multicast exists, and the multicast ending time of the media service which is currently multicast is delayed when the time difference between the current time and the multicast ending time of the media service which is currently multicast is less than a set time; that is, if the hot channel has generated the multicast schedule, it is determined whether the current multicast schedule is close to ending, and if so, the schedule is modified, and the multicast ending time is extended, so as to implement continuous multicast on the channel.

For an implementation manner of delaying a multicast end time of a media service that is being multicast, illustratively, the live broadcast management platform may send a multicast delay request to the multicast device, and the multicast device may delay the multicast end time according to the received multicast delay request.

Example 3:

deleting the multicast service corresponding to the low-heat media service when the low-heat media service exists in the media services which are being multicast; the low-heat media service does not belong to at least one media service with the highest current playing quantity.

For the implementation manner of deleting the multicast service, illustratively, the live broadcast management platform may send a multicast deletion request to the multicast device; the multicast device may delete the multicast service according to the received multicast deletion request.

In practical application, after receiving a multicast deletion request issued by a live broadcast management platform, a multicast device executes a multicast deletion task, and stops streaming to a live broadcast source station and sending a multicast.

As an implementation manner, the live broadcast management platform may issue a multicast service creation request to the multicast device when the multicast start time of each multicast service arrives; when the multicast ending time of each multicast service arrives, a multicast service deleting request is sent to multicast equipment; in specific implementation, the live broadcast management platform can scan a hot multicast plan at regular time, and when a multicast starting moment in the multicast plan is reached, a multicast creation request is issued to multicast equipment; and when the multicast ending time is reached, a multicast deleting request is issued to the multicast equipment.

It can be seen that by adopting the technical scheme of the embodiment of the invention, the dynamic multicast of the live broadcast channel can be realized as required; when the channel user quantity providing the unicast service is large, namely the heat is high, the multicast is started for the corresponding channel, so that the user is added into the multicast group to obtain the channel service, the network bandwidth and the equipment resource expenditure of the service side can be greatly reduced, and the cost of a service operator is reduced; when the number of users of the channels with multicast started is small or no user exists, namely the heat is low, the multicast can be closed for the corresponding channel, so that the resource consumption of multicast equipment can be reduced, and the resource consumption of the CDN multicast system equipment can be effectively reduced; in addition, the embodiment of the invention does not need to preset multicast, can dynamically start and stop the multicast according to the real-time heat of the channel, saves the complex operation of manually setting the multicast channel, and obviously improves the usability.

As an implementation manner, in the CDN multicast system, when a first type of media service with at least one code rate of any channel belongs to at least one media service with the highest current playing amount, a corresponding multicast service is created for a second type of media service with all code rates of a corresponding channel.

Here, when the first type of media service is a video media service, the second type of media service is an audio media service; when the first type of media service is an audio media service, the second type of media service is a video media service.

For example, when the video media service corresponding to one or more video bitrate of the channel a belongs to a high-heat media service (belongs to at least one media service with the highest current playing amount), multicast is started for all audio media services with audio bitrate of the channel a.

As an implementation manner, in a CDN multicast system, when a first type of media service of all code rates of any channel belongs to a low-heat media service, a corresponding multicast service is deleted for a second type of media service of all code rates of a corresponding channel; and the low-heat media service does not belong to at least one media service with the highest current playing quantity.

For example, when the video media services of all video bit rates of the channel B belong to the low-heat media service, the multicast is stopped for the audio media services of all audio bit rates of the channel B.

As an implementation manner, when creating or deleting a multicast service, the live broadcast management platform may send channel distribution information corresponding to the current multicast service to the controller; the controller may update the channel distribution information corresponding to the current multicast service according to the received channel distribution information.

Specifically, when a channel is created or deleted in the CDN multicast system, the live broadcast management platform sends channel distribution information of the current CDN multicast system to the controller, where the channel distribution information may include channel identification information and a multicast device address where the channel is located; and after receiving the channel distribution information sent by the live broadcast management platform, the controller locally records and updates the channel ID and the address of the multicast equipment where the channel is located.

As an implementation, the controller may also implement heartbeat message processing; specifically, the terminal front-end device sends a heartbeat message to the controller, wherein the heartbeat message comprises device identification information, a device address and a device state of the terminal front-end device; the controller can update the equipment identification information, the equipment address and the equipment state of the terminal front equipment according to the received heartbeat message. For example, after a terminal front-end device of a terminal system is powered on, the terminal front-end device may send a heartbeat message to a controller at a fixed time, and after receiving the heartbeat message sent by the terminal front-end device, the controller locally records and updates device identification information, a device address and a device state of the terminal front-end device.

As an implementation, the controller may also implement media service scheduling.

Specifically, the terminal device initiates a service redirection request to the controller, where the service redirection request may carry a channel ID and a device identifier of a leading device of the terminal to which the service redirection request belongs.

When receiving a service redirection request sent by a terminal device, the controller may send redirection information for the service redirection request to the terminal device according to channel distribution information corresponding to the current multicast service, device identification information of a terminal front-end device, a device address, and a device state. In a specific example, the controller may attempt to search, in the local record, an address of a multicast device or an address of a live source station where a channel is located according to a channel ID in a service redirection request sent by the terminal device; meanwhile, the controller acquires the equipment state of the terminal prepositive equipment to which the terminal equipment initiating the request belongs from a local record according to the identification information of the terminal prepositive equipment in the service redirection request; if the equipment state of the terminal prepositive equipment is normal, the controller redirects the terminal equipment to the terminal prepositive equipment, and the returned redirection information comprises the address of the terminal prepositive equipment to which the current terminal equipment belongs, the channel ID, the address of the multicast equipment where the channel is located or the address of a live broadcast source station; and if the equipment state of the terminal front equipment is abnormal or the equipment state is not obtained, the controller refuses the service.

In practical applications, the controller may be implemented by a Processor and a memory, and the Processor may be at least one of an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), a Digital Signal Processing Device (DSPD), a Programmable Logic Device (PLD), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a controller, a microcontroller, and a microprocessor.

The memory may be a volatile memory (volatile memory), such as a Random Access Memory (RAM); or a non-volatile Memory (non-volatile Memory), such as a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a flash Memory (flash Memory), a Hard Disk (Hard Disk Drive, HDD) or a Solid-State Drive (SSD); or a combination of the above types of memories and provides instructions and data to the processor.

Further, the terminal device may also request the media service, and the following describes a process of requesting the media service by the terminal device.

The terminal device initiates a media service request to the terminal front-end device, where the media service request may carry a channel ID, an address of a multicast device where the channel is located, or an address of a live source station.

The terminal front-end equipment judges whether the corresponding channel provides the multicast service according to whether the media service request of the terminal equipment contains the address information of the multicast equipment where the channel is located; if the address information of the multicast equipment where the channel is located is not contained, the terminal front-end equipment directly acquires unicast service from the live broadcast source station; if the address of the multicast equipment where the channel is located is included, a service request is initiated to the multicast equipment where the channel is located, and a channel ID is carried in a service request message;

the multicast equipment receives the service request of the terminal prepositive equipment, returns the multicast information corresponding to the channel to the terminal prepositive equipment, and the multicast information comprises a multicast address and a port corresponding to the channel.

After receiving the multicast information of the channel, the terminal front-end device joins in a multicast group through a multicast address and a port in the multicast information, continuously receives the multicast media stream of the channel, and transcodes the multicast media stream into a unicast code stream in real time to serve the terminal device.

And the live broadcast source station directly provides unicast media stream service to the terminal front-end equipment after receiving the service request of the terminal front-end equipment. And after acquiring the unicast media stream from the live broadcast source station, the terminal front-end equipment directly returns the media stream to the terminal equipment.

Second embodiment

In order to further embody the object of the present invention, a multicast method according to an embodiment of the present invention is described based on the first embodiment of the present invention from the perspective of a live broadcast management platform.

The multicast method according to the second embodiment of the present invention may include the steps of:

step A1: acquiring hot channel information, wherein the hot channel information comprises identification information of at least one media service with the highest current playing amount;

step A2: and adjusting the current multicast service according to the hot spot channel information.

Optionally, each media service corresponds to one channel, and the identification information of the media service is identification information of the corresponding channel.

Optionally, each media service corresponds to a channel and a bitrate, and the identification information of the media service includes: identification information of the corresponding channel and the corresponding code rate.

Optionally, the hot spot channel information is obtained according to media service real-time playing information of each terminal device.

Optionally, the acquiring hot spot channel information includes:

after a hot channel information acquisition request is generated, acquiring hot channel information according to the hot channel information acquisition request;

alternatively, hot channel information is received periodically.

Optionally, the adjusting the current multicast service according to the hot spot channel information includes at least one of the following:

when at least one media service with the highest current playing amount exists in the media services which are not multicast, establishing a corresponding multicast service for the media services which are not multicast;

in at least one media service with the highest current playing quantity, a media service which is currently multicast exists, and the multicast ending time of the media service which is currently multicast is delayed when the time difference between the current time and the multicast ending time of the media service which is currently multicast is less than a set time length;

deleting the multicast service corresponding to the low-heat media service when the low-heat media service exists in the media services which are being multicast; the low-heat media service does not belong to at least one media service with the highest current playing amount.

Optionally, the creating a corresponding multicast service includes:

and sending a multicast establishing request to multicast equipment, so that the multicast equipment establishes a multicast service according to the multicast establishing request, wherein the multicast establishing request is used for requesting to establish a corresponding multicast service aiming at the media service which is not subjected to multicast.

Optionally, the delaying the multicast ending time of the multicast media service includes:

and sending a multicast delay request to multicast equipment, so that the multicast equipment delays the multicast ending time according to the multicast delay request, wherein the multicast delay request is used for requesting to delay the multicast ending time of the media service in multicast.

Optionally, the deleting the multicast service corresponding to the low-popularity media service includes:

and sending a multicast deleting request to multicast equipment, so that the multicast equipment deletes the multicast service according to the multicast deleting request, wherein the multicast deleting request is used for requesting to delete the multicast service corresponding to the low-popularity media service.

Optionally, the method further comprises:

when the multicast starting time of each multicast service arrives, a multicast service creation request is sent to multicast equipment; and when the multicast ending time of each multicast service arrives, sending a multicast service deleting request to the multicast equipment.

Optionally, the method further comprises:

when the first type of media service of at least one code rate of any channel belongs to at least one media service with the highest current playing quantity, aiming at the second type of media services of all code rates of the corresponding channel, a corresponding multicast service is established, and when the first type of media service is a video media service, the second type of media service is an audio media service; and when the first type of media service is an audio media service, the second type of media service is a video media service.

Optionally, the method further comprises:

when the first type of media services with all code rates of any channel belong to the low-heat media services, deleting the corresponding multicast services aiming at the second type of media services with all code rates of the corresponding channel; the low-heat media service does not belong to at least one media service with the highest current playing quantity; when the first type of media service is a video media service, the second type of media service is an audio media service; and when the first type of media service is an audio media service, the second type of media service is a video media service.

Optionally, the method further comprises: when the multicast service is created or deleted, the channel distribution information corresponding to the current multicast service is sent to the controller, so that the controller updates the channel distribution information corresponding to the current multicast service.

Third embodiment

In order to further embody the object of the present invention, the multicast method according to the embodiment of the present invention is described from the perspective of the controller on the basis of the first embodiment of the present invention.

The multicast method according to the third embodiment of the present invention may include the steps of:

step B1: generating hotspot channel information, wherein the hotspot channel information comprises identification information of at least one media service with the highest current playing amount;

step B2: and sending the hot channel information to a live broadcast management platform, so that the live broadcast management platform adjusts the current multicast service according to the hot channel information.

Optionally, the generating hot spot channel information includes:

and receiving the media service real-time playing information of each terminal device, and generating the hot spot channel information according to the media service real-time playing information of each terminal device.

Optionally, the generating the hot spot channel information according to the media service real-time playing information of each terminal device includes:

determining a hot threshold value, wherein the hot threshold value is used for representing the path number of the parallel multicast service which can be supported by the live broadcast management platform at the maximum; and generating the hot spot channel information according to the media service real-time playing information of each terminal device and the heat threshold.

Optionally, the media service real-time playing information includes: identification information of the currently playing channel.

Optionally, the media service real-time playing information further includes: the code rate of the currently played media service.

Optionally, the method further comprises: receiving channel distribution information corresponding to the current multicast service sent by a live broadcast management platform when the multicast service is created or deleted; updating the channel distribution information corresponding to the current multicast service according to the received channel distribution information;

the method further comprises the following steps: receiving a heartbeat message sent by a terminal front-end device, wherein the heartbeat message comprises device identification information, a device address and a device state of the terminal front-end device; and updating the equipment identification information, the equipment address and the equipment state of the terminal front equipment according to the heartbeat message.

Optionally, the method further comprises:

and when a service redirection request sent by a terminal device is received, sending redirection information aiming at the service redirection request to the terminal device according to the channel distribution information corresponding to the current multicast service, the device identification information of the terminal preposed device, the device address of the terminal preposed device and the device state of the terminal preposed device.

Fourth embodiment

In order to further embody the object of the present invention, the foregoing embodiments of the present invention are further illustrated.

In the fourth embodiment of the present invention, how to implement the present invention is described by taking the single code rate channel live broadcast service of the HLS protocol as an example.

In the fourth embodiment of the present invention, a CDN multicast system, a live broadcast source station that uses an HLS protocol to transmit a media stream, a controller, and a terminal system used by 100 home users are provided; the CDN multicast system consists of 1 live broadcast management platform and 3 multicast devices, each family is provided with 2 terminal devices, a home gateway integrated with a terminal front device is deployed, the total number of the terminal devices is 200, 100 home gateways (namely the terminal front devices) are 100, and the identification information of the home gateway devices is respectively agent001 to agent 100; the multicast equipment and the live broadcast source station use HLS protocol interaction, a CDN multicast system provides multicast service for the terminal system, and the live broadcast source station provides unicast service for the terminal system; the live source station has 50 channels with channel IDs hlscid-01 to hlscid-50, respectively.

The controller heartbeat message processing procedure may include:

step 101: after the terminal front-end device is started, the terminal front-end device sends a heartbeat message to the controller at regular time, the heartbeat message carries the device identification information, the device address and the device state of the terminal front-end device, and in this embodiment, the content of the heartbeat message is as follows:

step 102: after receiving a heartbeat message sent by the terminal front-end equipment, the controller locally records and updates equipment identification information, equipment address and equipment state of the terminal front-end equipment;

the controller channel distribution information processing procedure may include:

step 201: when a multicast channel is created or updated in the CDN multicast system, the live broadcast management platform sends channel distribution information of the current CDN multicast system to the controller, where the channel distribution information includes channel identification information and a multicast device address where the channel is located, in this embodiment, the multicast channels have been established by channels hlscid-01 and hlscid-03, and the content of the channel distribution information is as follows:

step 202: and after receiving the channel distribution information sent by the live broadcast management platform, the controller locally records and updates the channel ID and the address of the multicast equipment where the channel is located.

Fig. 3-1 is a schematic diagram of a process in which a terminal device a requests HLS live broadcast service in the embodiment of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 3-1, the process may include:

step 301: a terminal device a of a home subscriber 001 initiates an HTTP play request of a channel hlscid-01 (i.e. a channel play request hlscid-01 in fig. 3-1) to a controller, and a URL in the play request carries channel identification information hlscid-01 and a device identification agent001 of a terminal front-end device to which the URL belongs; in this embodiment, the content of the play request sent by the terminal device a to the controller is as follows:

step 302: the controller receives a hlscid-01 channel playing request of the terminal equipment A, and acquires a multicast equipment address where the hlscid-01 channel is located in a local record; meanwhile, the device state of the front device agent001 of the terminal is obtained in the local record; the device state of the terminal front-end device agent001 is normal, the controller redirects the play request of the terminal device a of the home user 001 to the terminal front-end device agent001, and the returned redirection information includes the address of the terminal front-end device agent001, the channel identification information, and the address of the multicast device where the channel hlscid-01 is located, in this embodiment, the redirection information content returned by the controller to the terminal device a is as follows:

based on the above steps 301 and 302, service scheduling of the terminal device a by the controller is realized.

Step 303: the terminal device a re-initiates an HTTP play request of the channel hlscid-01 (i.e. re-requests hlscid-01 play in fig. 3-1) to the terminal pre-device agent001, where the URL carries the channel identification information hlscid-01 and the address 10.47.25.51 of the multicast device where the channel hlscid-01 is located in the play request.

Step 304: after receiving the play request from the terminal device a, the terminal front-end device agent001 initiates a multicast information request of channel hlscid-01 to the multicast device with address 10.47.25.51 (i.e. the multicast information request of channel hlscid-01 in fig. 3-1).

Step 305: the multicast device with address 10.47.25.51 returns the multicast information of channel hlscid-01 to the terminal front-end device agent 001.

Step 306: the terminal front-end device agent001 analyzes the multicast information of the channel hlscid-01, then joins in a multicast group through a multicast address and a port in the multicast information, receives the multicast stream of the channel hlscid-01, and caches the media list information file hlscid-01.m3u8 and the ts file to the local.

Step 307: the terminal front-end device agent001 returns a media list information file hlscid-01.m3u8 of hlscid-01 to the terminal device A; in this example, hlscid-01.m3u8 is as follows:

step 308: the terminal device a parses the hlscid-01.m3u8 file and then initiates a download request of the media file hlscid-01_01.ts to the terminal pre-device agent 001.

Step 309: after receiving the hlscid-01_01.ts downloading request of the terminal device A, the terminal front-end device agent001 reads hlscid-01_01.ts from the local cache and returns the hlscid-01_01.ts to the terminal device A.

Further, the terminal device a receives hlscid-01_01.ts, sequentially downloads the ts file behind the media list, and regularly downloads the media list information file hlscid-01.m3u8 to obtain ts list information update, and the steps are repeated to realize continuous playing of the media content.

Based on the above steps 303 to 309, the terminal device a requests the media service.

Fig. 3-2 is a schematic diagram of a process in which a terminal device B requests HLS live broadcast service in the embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 3-2, the process may include:

step 311: a terminal device B of a home subscriber 001 initiates an HTTP play request of a channel hlscid-02 (i.e. a hlscid-02 channel play request in fig. 3-2) to a controller, and a URL in the play request carries channel identification information hlscid-02 and a device identification agent001 of a terminal front-end device to which the URL belongs; the content of the service request sent by the terminal device B to the controller is as follows:

step 312: the controller receives a channel hlscid-02 play request of the terminal equipment B, because the channel hlscid-02 play request belongs to a home subscriber 001 and the terminal preposition equipment is agent001 with the terminal equipment A, the controller redirects the play request of the terminal equipment B to the terminal preposition equipment agent001, because the channel hlscid-02 does not start multicast, unicast service needs to be obtained from a live broadcast source station, the redirection information does not contain the address of the multicast equipment where the channel is located, but contains the address of the live broadcast source station, the returned redirection information contains the address of the terminal preposition equipment agent001, channel identification information and the address of the live broadcast source station, and the content of the redirection information returned by the controller to the terminal equipment B is as follows:

based on the above steps 301 and 302, service scheduling of the terminal device B by the controller is realized.

Step 313: the terminal device B re-initiates an HTTP play request of the channel hlscid-02 (i.e. re-request hlscid-02 play in fig. 3-2) to the terminal pre-device agent001, where the URL carries the channel identification information hlscid-02 and the address 10.10.10.01 of the live broadcast source station.

Step 314: after receiving the play request from terminal device B, the terminal front-end device agent001 initiates an HTTP unicast download request of channel hlscid-02 (i.e., the hlscid-02 channel unicast information request in fig. 3-2) to the live broadcast source station with address 10.10.10.01.

Step 315: the live source station returns a media slice list information file hlscid-02.m3u8 of channel hlscid-02, in this embodiment, the content of hlscid-02.m3u8 is as follows:

step 316: and after the media fragment list information file hlscid-02.m3u8 of the channel hlscid-02, acquired by the terminal front-end device agent001, returning the hlscid-02.m3u8 file to the terminal device B.

Step 317: the terminal equipment B analyzes the hlscid-02.m3u8 file and then initiates a downloading request of a media file hlscid-02_01.ts to the terminal front-end equipment agent 001;

step 318: and the terminal front-end device agent001 receives the downloading request of the terminal device B, and directly initiates the downloading request of the media file hlscid-02_01.ts to the live broadcast source station.

Step 319: and the live broadcast source station returns the media file hlscid-02_01.ts to the terminal front-end device agent 001.

Step 320: and after the terminal front-end device agent001 acquires the media file hlscid-02_01.ts, returning the media file hlscid-02_01.ts to the terminal device B.

Further, the terminal device B receives the file hlscid-02_01.ts, sequentially downloads the ts file behind the media list, and regularly downloads the media list information file hlscid-02.m3u8 to obtain ts list information update, and the steps are repeated so as to realize continuous playing of the media content.

Based on the above steps 313 to 320, the terminal device B requests the media service.

Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a process for implementing dynamic multicast of a single-code-rate HLS channel in an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 4, the process may include:

step 401: the terminal front-end device agent001 and the terminal front-end device agent002 report the media service real-time playing information of the corresponding terminal devices to the controller at regular time, the real-time playing information includes the channel IDs of the channels being played by the terminal device a and the terminal device B, in this embodiment, the content of the media service real-time playing information of the two terminal devices of the terminal system 001 is as follows:

step 402: and the controller locally records and updates after receiving the media service real-time playing information of the terminal equipment sent by the terminal front-end equipment.

Step 403: the controller collects the real-time playing information of the media service reported by all the terminal front-end devices at regular time, counts the number of the terminal devices corresponding to each channel, and sorts the terminal devices according to the number of the terminal devices corresponding to each channel, wherein in the embodiment, the sorting is as follows:

calculating the hot channel by using a set heat threshold; the setting of the heat threshold depends on the multicast capability of the CDN multicast system, in this embodiment, there are 3 multicast devices in the CDN multicast system, each multicast device supports 4 multicast channels at most, and then the CDN multicast system supports 12 multicast channels at most, and then the heat threshold is set to 12, and the channel 12 before the number of terminal devices is ranked is a hotspot channel; the controller records the channel identification information of the 12 hot channels and the like to the local.

Step 404: and the live broadcast management platform sends a hot channel information acquisition request to the controller at regular time.

Step 405: the controller reads the local storage data, and returns the hot channel information calculated in step 403 to the CDN multicast system, where in this embodiment, the content of the hot channel information is as follows:

based on the above steps 401 to 405, the controller hot spot channel statistics is realized.

Step 406: the live broadcast management platform receives hot channel information returned by the controller, and automatically generates a multicast plan of the channel hlscid-05 according to a dynamic multicast algorithm, in this embodiment, if the channel hlscid-05 does not start multicast, a multicast plan of the channel is generated, and the starting time of the multicast plan is 1 minute, the duration is 1 hour, the multicast address 225.0.0.1, and the multicast port 10010.

Step 407: and the live broadcast management platform scans the hot spot multicast plan at regular time, and when the multicast starting time in the multicast plan reaches, a multicast establishing request of a channel hlscid-05 is sent to the multicast equipment.

Step 408: after receiving a multicast creating request sent by a live broadcast management platform, the multicast device executes a multicast creating task with channel identification information of hlscid-05, transcodes a unicast code stream of a source channel hlscid-05 from a live broadcast source station into a multicast stream, sends the multicast stream to a multicast address 225.0.0.1, and starts multicast service with a sending port of 10010.

Based on the above steps 406 to 408, the multicast starting process based on the hot spot channel is realized.

Further, the multicast may also be stopped based on the hot channel, and the process of stopping the multicast based on the hot channel may include:

the live broadcast management platform regularly scans the multicast plan of the channel hlscid-05, if the channel is a hot channel, if the channel hlscid-05 is still the hot channel near the ending time, the ending time of the multicast plan is prolonged by 1 hour, and if the channel hlscid-05 is not the hot channel, the ending time of the multicast plan is not prolonged. And when the multicast plan ending time reaches, issuing a multicast deletion request of a channel hlscid-05 to the multicast equipment.

After receiving the multicast deletion request issued by the live broadcast management platform, the multicast device executes the multicast deletion task with the channel identification information of hlscid-05, and does not send the live broadcast source station to pull the unicast stream any more, and the multicast service is finished.

Fifth embodiment

In the fifth embodiment of the present invention, how to implement the present invention is described by taking an example of providing a DASH protocol service to a user terminal.

In the fifth embodiment of the present invention, a CDN multicast system, a live source station that uses a DASH protocol to transmit media streams, a controller, and 100 terminal systems used by home users are provided; the CDN multicast system consists of 1 live broadcast management platform and 3 multicast devices, each family is provided with 2 terminal devices (terminals adopting chrome browsers), a home gateway integrating terminal front-end devices is deployed, the total number of the home gateways is 200 terminal devices and 100 home gateways (namely the terminal front-end devices), and the identification information of the home gateway devices is respectively agent001 to agent 100; the multicast equipment and the live broadcast source station use DASH protocol interaction, a CDN multicast system provides multicast service for the terminal system, and the live broadcast source station provides unicast service for the terminal system; the live broadcast source station has 10 channels, the channel IDs are respectively dashcid-01 to dashcid-10, the media content of each channel is a video and audio double track, the video track has 3 seed code rates which are 1024000, 2048000 and 3072000 respectively, and the audio track has 2 code rates which are 160000 and 320000 respectively.

The controller heartbeat message processing procedure may include:

step 501: after the terminal front-end device is started, the terminal front-end device sends a heartbeat message to the controller at regular time, the heartbeat message carries the device identification information, the device address and the device state of the terminal front-end device, and in this embodiment, the content of the heartbeat message is as follows:

step 502: and after receiving the heartbeat message sent by the terminal front equipment, the controller locally records and updates the equipment identification information, the equipment address and the equipment state of the terminal front equipment.

The channel distribution information processing process of the controller comprises the following steps:

step 601: when a multicast channel is created or updated in the CDN multicast system, the live broadcast management platform sends channel distribution information of the current CDN multicast system to the controller, where the channel distribution information includes channel identification information and a multicast device address where the channel is located, in this embodiment, some subcode rates of the channels dashcid-01 and dashcid-03 have already created the multicast channel, and the content of the channel distribution information is as follows:

step 602: and after receiving the channel distribution information sent by the live broadcast management platform, the controller locally records and updates the channel ID and the address of the multicast equipment where the channel is located.

Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of a process in which a terminal device a requests a DASH live broadcast service in an embodiment of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 5, the process may include:

step 701: in this embodiment, the content of the playing request sent by the terminal device a to the controller is as follows:

step 702: the controller acquires the address of the multicast equipment where the channel dashcid-01 is located in the local record; meanwhile, the device state of the front device agent001 of the terminal is obtained in the local record; the device state of the terminal front-end device agent001 is normal, the controller redirects the terminal device a of the home user 001 to the terminal front-end device agent001, and the returned redirection information includes the address of the terminal front-end device agent001, the channel identification information, and the address of the multicast device where the channel dashcid-01 is located, in this embodiment, the redirection information content returned by the controller to the terminal device is as follows:

based on the above steps 701 and 702, the service scheduling of the controller to the terminal device a is realized.

Step 703: the terminal device a re-initiates an HTTP play request of the channel dashcid-01 (i.e., re-request play service in fig. 5) to the terminal pre-device agent001, where the URL carries the channel identification information dashcid-01 and the address 10.47.25.51 of the multicast device where the channel dashcid-01 is located in the play request.

Step 704: after receiving the play request of the terminal device a, the terminal front-end device agent001 initiates a code rate list manifest file download request of HTTP channel dashcid-01 to the multicast device with address 10.47.25.51.

Step 705: and returning the manifest file and the multicast information by the multicast equipment, and locally recording and updating in the terminal equipment.

Step 706: and after the code rate list manifest.

Step 707: the terminal device A selects a video sub-code rate 2048000 and an audio sub-code rate 160000 according to its own strategy, and simultaneously initiates a service request of the video sub-code rate 2048000 and the audio sub-code rate 160000 to the terminal front-end device agent 001.

Step 708: the terminal front-end device agent001 acquires multicast information of the video subcode rate 2048000 from a local record, then joins a multicast group through a multicast address and a port in the multicast information, receives a multicast stream of the video subcode rate 2048000, and then transcodes the multicast stream into a unicast stream to serve a terminal device A; if the local record does not find the multicast information of the video subcode rate 2048000, directly initiating a service request of the video subcode rate 2048000 to the live broadcast source station, and returning a source unicast media stream from the live broadcast source station (not shown in fig. 5); in this step, the processing flow of the audio subcode rate 160000 is the same as the video subcode rate 2048000, and therefore, will not be described in detail.

Step 709: after the front-end device agent001 acquires the media stream, returning the media stream to the terminal device a; if the terminal front-end device agent001 has a buffer of the video sub-code rate 2048000 and the audio sub-code rate 160000 of the channel dashcid-01 locally, the terminal front-end device agent directly reads the local buffer and provides service for the terminal device A.

Based on the above steps 703 to 709, the terminal device a requests the media service.

Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of a process for implementing dynamic multicast on a multi-rate DASH channel in an embodiment of the present invention, where as shown in fig. 6, the process may include:

step 801: the method comprises the steps that a terminal front-end device agent001 and a terminal front-end device agent002 report media service real-time playing information of corresponding terminal equipment to a controller at regular time, wherein the real-time playing information comprises channel identification information and video code rate of channels being played by a terminal equipment A and a terminal equipment B; in this embodiment, the content of the media service real-time playing information of the two terminal devices of the terminal system 001 is as follows:

step 802: and the controller locally records and updates after receiving the media service real-time playing information of the terminal equipment sent by the terminal front-end equipment.

Step 803: the controller collects real-time playing information of the media service reported by all the terminal front-end devices at regular time, counts the number of the terminal devices corresponding to each video sub-code rate of each channel, and sorts the terminal devices according to the number of the terminal devices corresponding to each video sub-code rate of each channel, wherein the sorting is as follows in the embodiment:

and calculating the hot video code rate according to the set heat threshold. The setting of the heat threshold depends on the multicast capability of the CDN multicast system, in this embodiment, there are 3 multicast devices in the CDN multicast system, each multicast device supports 4 multicast channels at most, and then the system supports 12 multicast channels at most, and then the heat threshold is set to 12, and the channel video sub-code rate 12 before the number of terminal devices is ranked is the hotspot video code rate; the controller records the channel identification information, code rate value and the like of the 12 hot video code rates to the local.

Step 804: and the live broadcast management platform sends a hotspot video code rate information acquisition request to the controller at regular time.

Step 805: the controller reads the local storage data, and returns the hotspot video code rate information calculated in step 803 to the CDN multicast system, where in this embodiment, the content of the hotspot video code rate information is as follows:

based on the above steps 801 to 805, controller hot spot channel statistics is realized.

Step 806: the live broadcast management platform receives hot video code rate information returned by the controller, and automatically generates a video sub-code rate 2048000 of the channel dashcid-05 and a multicast plan of other hot video code rates according to a dynamic multicast algorithm, in the embodiment, if the sub-code rate 2048000 of the channel dashcid-05 does not start multicast, the multicast plan of the code rate is generated, the starting time of the multicast plan is 1 minute, the time is 1 hour, the multicast address 225.0.0.1 and the multicast port 10010; when one or more video code rates in a channel become hot code rates, all audio code rates of the channel start multicasting, when all video code rates of the channel become non-hot code rates, the audio code rates stop multicasting, after the video code rate 2048000 of the channel dashcid-05 starts multicasting, the audio code rates 160000 and 320000 also simultaneously generate a multicasting plan, the starting time and the ending time of multicasting are consistent with the video code rates, and multicasting addresses and ports need to be additionally distributed.

Step 807: the live broadcast management platform scans the hot spot multicast plan at regular time, and when the multicast starting time in the multicast plan arrives, sends multicast creating requests of channel video subcode rate 2048000, audio subcode rate 160000 and 320000 to the multicast equipment.

Step 808: after receiving a multicast creating request sent by a live broadcast management platform, the multicast equipment executes a multicast creating task with the video sub-code rate 2048000 and the audio sub-code rates 160000 and 320000 of which the channel identification information is dashcid-05, and transcodes unicast code streams of the source video sub-code rate 2048000 and the audio sub-code rates 160000 and 320000 from a live broadcast source station into multicast streams and sends the multicast streams to multicast addresses and ports corresponding to the code rates, so that multicast service starts.

Based on the above steps 806 to 808, the multicast starting process based on the hot spot channel is realized.

Sixth embodiment

In the sixth embodiment of the present invention, how to implement the present invention is described by taking an example of providing an MSS protocol service to a user terminal.

In the sixth embodiment of the present invention, a CDN multicast system, a live broadcast source station that uses an MSS protocol to transmit media streams, a controller, and 100 terminal systems used by home users are provided; the CDN multicast system consists of 1 live broadcast management platform and 3 multicast devices, each family is provided with 2 terminal devices (terminals adopting IE browsers), a family gateway integrating terminal front-end devices is deployed, the total number of the family gateways is 200 terminal devices and 100 family gateways (namely the terminal front-end devices), and the identification information of the family gateway devices is respectively agent001 to agent 100; the multicast equipment and the live broadcast source station use MSS protocol interaction, a CDN multicast system provides multicast service for the terminal system, and the live broadcast source station provides unicast service for the terminal system; the live broadcast source station has 10 channels, the channel IDs are msscid-01 to msscid-10 respectively, the media content of each channel is a video and audio double track, the video track has 3 seed code rates which are 1024000, 2048000 and 3072000 respectively, and the audio track has 2 code rates which are 160000 and 320000 respectively.

The heartbeat message processing process of the controller comprises the following steps:

step 901: after the terminal front-end device is started, the terminal front-end device sends a heartbeat message to the controller at regular time, the heartbeat message carries the device identification information, the device address and the device state of the terminal front-end device, and in this embodiment, the content of the heartbeat message is as follows:

step 902: and after receiving the heartbeat message sent by the terminal front equipment, the controller locally records and updates the equipment identification information, the equipment address and the equipment state of the terminal front equipment.

step 1001: when a multicast channel is created or updated in the CDN multicast system, the live broadcast management platform sends channel distribution information of the current CDN multicast system to the controller, where the channel distribution information includes channel identification information and a multicast device address where the channel is located, in this embodiment, a multicast channel has been created at some subcode rates of channels msscid-01 and msscid-03, and the content of the channel distribution information is as follows:

step 1002: after receiving channel distribution information sent by a live broadcast management platform, a controller locally records and updates a channel ID and an address of multicast equipment where a channel is located;

fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of a process of requesting an MSS live service by a terminal device a in the embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 7, the process may include:

step 1101: a terminal device a of a home subscriber 001 initiates an HTTP play request (i.e., a channel play request in fig. 7) of a channel msscid-01 to a controller, where a URL in the play request carries channel identification information msscid-01 and a device identification agent001 of a terminal front device to which the URL belongs, and in this embodiment, the content of the play request sent by the terminal device to the controller is as follows:

step 1102: the controller acquires the address of the multicast equipment where the channel msscid-01 is located in the local record; meanwhile, the device state of the front device agent001 of the terminal is obtained in the local record; the device state of the terminal front-end device agent001 is normal, the controller redirects the terminal device a of the home subscriber 001 to the terminal front-end device agent001, and the returned redirection information includes the address of the terminal front-end device agent001, the channel identification information, and the address of the multicast device where the channel msscid-01 is located, in this embodiment, the redirection information content returned by the controller to the terminal device is as follows:

based on the

above steps

1101 and 1102, service scheduling of the controller to the terminal device a is realized

Step 1103: the terminal device a re-initiates an HTTP play request (i.e., re-request play service in fig. 7) of the channel msscid-01 to the terminal front-end device agent001, where the URL carries the channel identification information dashcid-01 and the address 10.47.25.51 of the multicast device where the channel msscid-01 is located in the play request.

Step 1104: after receiving the play request of the terminal device a, the terminal front-end device agent001 initiates a request for downloading a code rate list manifest file of an HTTP channel msscid-01 to a multicast device with an address of 10.47.25.51.

Step 1105: the multicast equipment returns the manifest file and the multicast information, and local recording and updating are carried out in the terminal equipment.

Step 1106: and after the code rate list manifest file of the channel msscid-01 is acquired by the terminal front-end device agent001, returning the manifest file to the terminal device A.

Step 1107: the terminal device A selects a video sub-code rate 2048000 and an audio sub-code rate 160000 according to its own strategy, and simultaneously initiates a service request of the video sub-code rate 2048000 and the audio sub-code rate 160000 to the terminal front-end device agent 001.

Step 1108: the terminal front-end device agent001 acquires multicast information of the video subcode rate 2048000 from a local record, then joins a multicast group through a multicast address and a port in the multicast information, receives a multicast stream of the video subcode rate 2048000, and then transcodes the multicast stream into a unicast stream to serve a terminal device A; if the local record does not find the multicast information of the video subcode rate 2048000, directly initiating a service request of the video subcode rate 2048000 to the live broadcast source station, and returning a source unicast media stream from the live broadcast source station (not shown in fig. 7); in this step, the processing flow of the audio subcode rate 160000 is the same as the video subcode rate 2048000, and therefore, will not be described in detail.

Step 1109: after the terminal front-end device agent001 acquires the media stream, returning the media stream to the terminal device A; if the terminal front-end device agent001 has the buffer memory of the video sub-code rate 2048000 and the audio sub-code rate 160000 of the channel msscid-01 locally, the terminal device A is provided with service after the local buffer memory is directly read.

Based on the above steps 1103 to 1109, the terminal device a requests the media service.

Fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of a multi-rate MSS channel dynamic multicast implementation process in the embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 8, the process may include:

step 1201: the method comprises the steps that a terminal front-end device agent001 and a terminal front-end device agent002 report media service real-time playing information of corresponding terminal equipment to a controller at regular time, wherein the real-time playing information comprises channel identification information and video code rate of channels being played by a terminal equipment A and a terminal equipment B; in this embodiment, the content of the media service real-time playing information of the two terminal devices of the terminal system 001 is as follows:

step 1202: and the controller locally records and updates after receiving the media service real-time playing information of the terminal equipment sent by the terminal front-end equipment.

Step 1203: the controller collects real-time playing information of the media service reported by all the terminal front-end devices at regular time, counts the number of the terminal devices corresponding to each video sub-code rate of each channel, and sorts the terminal devices according to the number of the terminal devices corresponding to each video sub-code rate of each channel, wherein the sorting is as follows in the embodiment:

and calculating the hot video code rate according to the set heat threshold. In this embodiment, there are 3 multicast devices in the CDN multicast system, each multicast device supports 4 multicast channels at maximum, and the system supports 12 multicast channels at maximum, and the heat threshold is set to 12, and the channel video sub-code rate of the terminal device ranking top12 is the hot video code rate. The controller records the channel identification information, code rate value and the like of the 12 hot video code rates to the local.

Step 1204: and the live broadcast management platform sends a hotspot video code rate information acquisition request to the controller at regular time.

Step 1205: the controller reads the local storage data, and returns the hot video code rate information calculated in step 1203 to the CDN multicast system, where in this embodiment, the content of the hot video code rate information is as follows:

Step 1206: the live broadcast management platform receives hot video code rate information returned by the controller, and automatically generates a video sub-code rate 2048000 of a channel msscid-05 and a multicast plan of other hot video code rates according to a dynamic multicast algorithm, in the embodiment, if the multicast is not started at the sub-code rate 2048000 of the channel msscid-05, the multicast plan of the code rate is generated, the starting time of the multicast plan is 1 minute, the time is 1 hour, the multicast address 225.0.0.1 is obtained, and the multicast port 10010 is obtained; when one or more video code rates in a channel become hot code rates, all audio code rates of the channel start multicasting, when all video code rates of the channel become non-hot, the audio code rates stop multicasting, after the video code rate 2048000 of the channel dashcid-05 starts multicasting, audio code rates 160000 and 320000 also simultaneously generate a multicasting plan, the starting time and the ending time of multicasting are consistent with the video code rates, and multicasting addresses and ports need to be additionally distributed;

step 1207: the live broadcast management platform scans the hot spot multicast plan at regular time, and when the multicast starting time in the multicast plan arrives, sends multicast channel creation requests of the channel video subcode rate 2048000, the audio subcode rate 160000 and the audio subcode rate 320000 to the multicast equipment.

Step 1208: after receiving a multicast creating request sent by a live broadcast management platform, the multicast equipment executes a multicast channel creating task with the video sub-code rate 2048000 and the audio sub-code rates 160000 and 320000 of which the channel identification information is msscid-05, and transcodes unicast code streams of the source video sub-code rate 2048000 and the audio sub-code rates 160000 and 320000 from a live broadcast source station into multicast streams and sends the multicast streams to multicast addresses and ports corresponding to the code rates, and multicast service starts.

Seventh embodiment

In the seventh embodiment of the present invention, how to implement the present invention is described by taking an example of providing HDS protocol service to a user terminal.

In the seventh embodiment of the present invention, a CDN multicast system, a live broadcast source station that transmits a media stream using an HDS protocol, a controller, and a terminal system used by 100 home users are provided; the CDN multicast system consists of 1 live broadcast management platform and 3 multicast devices, each family is provided with 2 terminal devices (terminals adopting chrome browsers), a home gateway integrating terminal front-end devices is deployed, the total number of the home gateways is 200 terminal devices and 100 home gateways (namely the terminal front-end devices), and the identification information of the home gateway devices is respectively agent001 to agent 100; the multicast equipment and the live broadcast source station use HDS protocol interaction, a CDN multicast system provides multicast service for the terminal system, and the live broadcast source station provides unicast service for the terminal system; the live broadcast source station has 10 channels, the channel IDs are hdscid-01 to hdscid-10, each channel has 3 seed code rates, and the audio and video are on the same track and are 1024000, 2048000 and 3072000 respectively.

The controller heartbeat message processing procedure may include:

step 1301: after the terminal front-end device is started, the terminal front-end device sends a heartbeat message to the controller at regular time, the heartbeat message carries the device identification information, the device address and the device state of the terminal front-end device, and in this embodiment, the content of the heartbeat message is as follows:

step 1302: and after receiving the heartbeat message sent by the terminal front equipment, the controller locally records and updates the equipment identification information, the equipment address and the equipment state of the terminal front equipment.

step 1401: when a multicast channel is created or updated in the CDN multicast system, the live broadcast management platform sends channel distribution information of the current CDN multicast system to the controller, where the channel distribution information includes channel identification information and a multicast device address where the channel is located, in this embodiment, some sub-code rates of the channels hdscid-01 and hdscid-03 have already created a multicast channel, and the content of the channel distribution information is as follows:

step 1402: and after receiving the channel distribution information sent by the live broadcast management platform, the controller locally records and updates the channel ID and the address of the multicast equipment where the channel is located.

Fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of a process in which a terminal device a requests an HDS live broadcast service in the embodiment of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 9, the process may include:

step 1501: in this embodiment, the content of the service request sent by the terminal device a to the controller is as follows:

step 1502: the controller acquires the address of the multicast equipment where the channel hdscid-01 is located in the local record; meanwhile, the device state of the front device agent001 of the terminal is obtained in the local record; the device state of the terminal front-end device agent001 is normal, the controller redirects the terminal device a of the home user 001 to the terminal front-end device agent001, and the returned redirection information includes the address of the terminal front-end device agent001, the channel identification information, and the address of the multicast device where the channel hdscid-01 is located, in this embodiment, the redirection information content returned by the controller to the terminal device is as follows:

based on the above-described step 1501 and step 1502, service scheduling of the terminal apparatus a by the controller is realized.

Step 1503: the terminal device a re-initiates an HTTP play request (i.e. re-request play service in fig. 9) of the channel hdscid-01 to the terminal pre-device agent001, where the URL carries the channel identification information hdscid-01 and the address 10.47.25.51 of the multicast device where the channel hdscid-01 is located in the play request.

Step 1504: after receiving the play request of the terminal device a, the terminal front-end device agent001 sends a code rate list manifest file download request of an HTTP channel hdscid-01 to the multicast device with the address of 10.47.25.51.

Step 1505: the multicast equipment returns the manifest file and the multicast information, and local recording and updating are carried out in the terminal equipment.

Step 1506: and after the terminal front-end device agent001 acquires the code rate list manifest file of the channel hdscid-01, returning the manifest file to the terminal device A.

Step 1507: the terminal device a selects one sub-code rate 2048000 according to its own policy, and initiates a service request of the sub-code rate 2048000 (i.e., the sub-code rate service request in fig. 9) to the terminal pre-device agent 001.

Step 1508: the terminal front-end device agent001 acquires the multicast information of the subcode rate 2048000 from the local record, then joins in a multicast group through the multicast address and port in the multicast information, receives the multicast stream of the subcode rate 2048000, and then transcodes the multicast stream into a unicast stream to serve the terminal device A; if the local record does not find the multicast information of the subcode rate 2048000, a service request of the subcode rate 2048000 is directly sent to the live broadcast source station, and the media stream is unicast from the live broadcast source station to the source.

Step 1509: after the terminal front-end device agent001 acquires the media stream, returning the media stream to the terminal device A; if the terminal front-end device agent001 locally has a cache of the request service sub code rate 2048000, directly reading the local cache and then providing service for the terminal device A;

based on the above steps 1503 to 1509, the terminal device a requests the media service.

Fig. 10 is a schematic diagram of a process for implementing dynamic multicast of a multi-rate HDS channel in an embodiment of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 10, the process may include:

step 1601: the method comprises the steps that a terminal front-end device agent001 and a terminal front-end device agent002 report media service real-time playing information of corresponding terminal equipment to a controller at regular time, wherein the real-time playing information comprises channel identification information and video code rate of channels being played by a terminal equipment A and a terminal equipment B; in this embodiment, the content of the media service real-time playing information of the two terminal devices of the terminal system 001 is as follows:

step 1602: and the controller locally records and updates after receiving the media service real-time playing information of the terminal equipment sent by the terminal front-end equipment.

Step 1603: the controller collects real-time playing information of the media service reported by all the terminal front-end devices at regular time, counts the number of terminal devices corresponding to each subcode rate of each channel, and sorts the terminal devices according to the number of the terminal devices of each code rate of the channel, wherein the sorting is as follows in the embodiment:

and calculating the hot spot code rate according to a set heat threshold. In this embodiment, there are 3 multicast devices in the CDN multicast system, each multicast device supports 4 multicast channels at maximum, and the system supports 12 multicast channels at maximum, and the heat threshold is set to 12, and the channel sub-code rate of the terminal device ranking top12 is the hot spot code rate. The controller records the channel marks, code rate values and the like of the 12 hot spot code rates to the local;

step 1604: and the live broadcast management platform sends a hotspot code rate information acquisition request to the controller at regular time.

Step 1605: the controller reads the local storage data, and returns the hot video code rate information calculated in step 1603 to the CDN multicast system, where in this embodiment, the content of the hot video code rate information is as follows:

based on the steps 1601 to 1605, the controller hot spot channel statistics is realized.

Step 1606: the live broadcast management platform receives hot spot code rate information returned by the controller, and automatically generates a sub-code rate 2048000 of the channel hdscid-05 and a multicast plan of other hot spot code rates according to a dynamic multicast algorithm, in the real-time example, if the sub-code rate 2048000 of the channel hdscid-05 does not start multicast, the multicast plan of the code rate is generated, the starting time of the multicast plan is 1 minute, the time is 1 hour, the multicast address 225.0.0.1 and the multicast port 10010 are obtained.

Step 1607: and the live broadcast management platform scans the hot spot multicast plan at regular time, and when the multicast starting time in the multicast plan arrives, a multicast establishing request of the channel sub-code rate 2048000 is sent to the multicast equipment.

Step 1608: after receiving a multicast creating request sent by a live broadcast management platform, the multicast device executes a multicast creating task with the channel identification information being hdsicid-05 subcode rate 2048000, transcodes a unicast code stream with the source-returned subcode rate 2048000 from a live broadcast source station into a multicast stream, sends the multicast stream to a multicast address 225.0.0.1, and starts multicast service with a sending port of 10010.

Eighth embodiment

On the basis of the multicast method provided in the foregoing embodiment of the present invention, an eighth embodiment of the present invention provides a multicast apparatus, which can be applied to a live broadcast management platform.

Fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of a multicast apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 11, the apparatus includes: an acquisition module 1101 and a first processing module 1102, wherein,

an obtaining module 1101, configured to obtain hotspot channel information, where the hotspot channel information includes identification information of at least one media service with a highest current playing amount;

the first processing module 1102 is configured to adjust a current multicast service according to the hot spot channel information.

In an embodiment, each media service corresponds to one channel, and the identification information of the media service is identification information of the corresponding channel.

In an embodiment, each media service corresponds to a channel and a bitrate, and the identification information of the media service includes: identification information of the corresponding channel and the corresponding code rate.

In an embodiment, the hot spot channel information is obtained according to media service real-time playing information of each terminal device.

In an embodiment, the obtaining module 1101 is configured to, after generating a hot spot channel information acquisition request, acquire hot spot channel information according to the hot spot channel information acquisition request; alternatively, hot channel information is received periodically.

In an embodiment, the first processing module 1102 is specifically configured to perform at least one of the following:

In an embodiment, the first processing module 1102 is specifically configured to send a multicast creation request to a multicast device, so that the multicast device creates a multicast service according to the multicast creation request, where the multicast creation request is used to request that a corresponding multicast service be created for the media service that is not being multicast.

In an embodiment, the first processing module 1102 is specifically configured to send a multicast delay request to a multicast device, so that the multicast device delays a multicast end time according to the multicast delay request, where the multicast delay request is used to request to delay the multicast end time of the multicast media service.

In an embodiment, the first processing module 1102 is specifically configured to send a multicast deletion request to a multicast device, so that the multicast device deletes a multicast service according to the multicast deletion request, where the multicast deletion request is used to request to delete a multicast service corresponding to the low-heat media service.

In an embodiment, the first processing module 1102 is further configured to issue a multicast service creation request to a multicast device when a multicast start time of each multicast service arrives; and when the multicast ending time of each multicast service arrives, sending a multicast service deleting request to the multicast equipment.

In an embodiment, the first processing module 1102 is further configured to, when a first type of media service with at least one code rate of any channel belongs to at least one media service with the highest current playing amount, create a corresponding multicast service for a second type of media service with all code rates of a corresponding channel, where when the first type of media service is a video media service, the second type of media service is an audio media service; and when the first type of media service is an audio media service, the second type of media service is a video media service.

In an embodiment, the first processing module 1102 is further configured to delete the corresponding multicast service for the second type of media service with all code rates of the corresponding channel when the first type of media service with all code rates of any channel belongs to the low-heat media service; the low-heat media service does not belong to at least one media service with the highest current playing quantity; when the first type of media service is a video media service, the second type of media service is an audio media service; and when the first type of media service is an audio media service, the second type of media service is a video media service.

In an embodiment, the first processing module 1102 is further configured to send, when creating or deleting a multicast service, channel distribution information corresponding to a current multicast service to a controller, so that the controller updates the channel distribution information corresponding to the current multicast service.

In practical applications, the obtaining module 1101 and the first processing module 1102 can be implemented by a CPU, a microprocessor Unit (MPU), a DSP, or an FPGA in the live broadcast management platform.

In addition, each functional module in this embodiment may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units are integrated into one unit. The integrated unit can be realized in a form of hardware or a form of a software functional module.

Based on the understanding that the technical solution of the present embodiment essentially or a part contributing to the prior art, or all or part of the technical solution may be embodied in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium, and include several instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) or a processor (processor) to execute all or part of the steps of the method of the present embodiment. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: various media capable of storing program codes, such as a usb disk, a removable hard disk, a Read Only Memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.

Specifically, the computer program instructions corresponding to a multicast method in the present embodiment may be stored on a storage medium such as an optical disc, a hard disc, or a usb disk, and when the computer program instructions corresponding to a multicast method in the storage medium are read or executed by an electronic device, the steps of any of the multicast methods in the second embodiment described above are implemented.

Based on the same technical concept of the foregoing embodiment, referring to fig. 12, it illustrates a multicast device 120 provided by an embodiment of the present invention, which may include: a first memory 121 and a first processor 122; wherein,

the first memory 121 for storing computer programs and data;

the first processor 122 is configured to execute the computer program stored in the memory to implement the steps of any one of the multicast methods of the foregoing second embodiments.

In practical applications, the first memory 121 may be a volatile memory, such as a RAM; or a nonvolatile memory such as a ROM, a flash memory, an HDD, or an SSD; or a combination of the above types of memories and provides instructions and data to the first processor 122.

The first processor 122 may be at least one of ASIC, DSP, DSPD, PLD, FPGA, CPU, controller, microcontroller, and microprocessor. It is to be understood that the electronic device for implementing the first processor function may be other electronic devices, and the embodiment of the present invention is not limited in particular.

Ninth embodiment

On the basis of the multicast method proposed in the foregoing embodiment of the present invention, a ninth embodiment of the present invention proposes a multicast apparatus, which can be applied to a controller.

Fig. 13 is a schematic structural diagram of another multicast apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 13, the apparatus includes: a generation module 1301 and a second processing module 1302, wherein,

a generating module 1301, configured to generate hotspot channel information, where the hotspot channel information includes identification information of at least one media service with a highest current playing amount;

the second processing module 1302 is configured to send the hot channel information to a live broadcast management platform, so that the live broadcast management platform adjusts a current multicast service according to the hot channel information.

In an embodiment, the second processing module 1301 is specifically configured to receive media service real-time playing information of each terminal device, and generate the hot spot channel information according to the media service real-time playing information of each terminal device.

In an embodiment, the second processing module 1301 is specifically configured to determine a hot threshold, where the hot threshold is used to indicate a path number of parallel multicast services that the live broadcast management platform can support at maximum; and generating the hot spot channel information according to the media service real-time playing information of each terminal device and the heat threshold.

In one embodiment, the media service real-time playing information includes: identification information of the currently playing channel.

In an embodiment, the media service real-time playing information further includes: the code rate of the currently played media service.

In an embodiment, the second processing module 1301 is further configured to send channel distribution information corresponding to a current multicast service when receiving a multicast service created or deleted by a live broadcast management platform; updating the channel distribution information corresponding to the current multicast service according to the received channel distribution information;

receiving a heartbeat message sent by a terminal front-end device, wherein the heartbeat message comprises device identification information, a device address and a device state of the terminal front-end device; and updating the equipment identification information, the equipment address and the equipment state of the terminal front equipment according to the heartbeat message.

In an embodiment, the second processing module 1301 is further configured to, when receiving a service redirection request sent by a terminal device, send redirection information for the service redirection request to the terminal device according to channel distribution information corresponding to the current multicast service, device identification information of the terminal pre-device, a device address of the terminal pre-device, and a device state of the terminal pre-device.

An embodiment of the present invention further provides a controller, fig. 14 is a schematic diagram of an internal structure of the controller according to the embodiment of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 14, the controller may include: a heartbeat message receiving module, a channel distribution information receiving module, a real-time playing information receiving module, a hot spot channel counting module, a hot spot channel information sending module and a scheduling module, wherein,

the heartbeat message receiving module is used for receiving heartbeat messages reported by the terminal system, locally recording and updating the heartbeat messages, wherein the heartbeat messages comprise equipment identification information, equipment addresses and equipment states of the terminal front equipment;

the system comprises a channel distribution information receiving module, a channel distribution information updating module and a Content Delivery Network (CDN) multicast system synchronization module, wherein the channel distribution information receiving module is used for receiving channel distribution information synchronized by the CDN multicast system, locally recording and updating the channel distribution information, and the channel distribution information comprises a channel ID and a multicast equipment address where a channel is located;

the real-time playing information receiving module is used for receiving the media service real-time playing information reported by the terminal system, and locally recording and updating the media service real-time playing information, wherein the media service real-time playing information comprises the ID of the current playing channel of the terminal equipment;

the hot channel counting module is used for summarizing the real-time playing information of the media services of all the terminal devices, calculating a hot channel according to a set heat threshold value and recording the hot channel to the local;

the hot channel information sending module is used for sending hot channel information to the CDN multicast system, wherein the hot channel information comprises a channel ID of a hot channel; in actual implementation, when a hot channel information acquisition request of the CDN multicast system is received, sending of the hot channel information may be triggered, or the hot channel information may be actively sent to the CDN multicast system according to a specific period;

and the scheduling module is used for receiving a service redirection request initiated by the terminal equipment, wherein the service redirection request carries a channel ID and identification information of the leading equipment of the terminal. The scheduling module acquires the multicast equipment address of a channel in a local record according to the channel ID in the live broadcast service request sent by the terminal equipment; and simultaneously, acquiring the equipment state of the terminal prepositive equipment which the terminal equipment initiating the request belongs to from the local record according to the identification information in the service redirection request. If the equipment state of the terminal prepositive equipment is normal, redirecting the terminal equipment to the terminal prepositive equipment, wherein the returned redirection information comprises the address of the terminal prepositive equipment to which the current terminal equipment belongs, the channel ID and the address of the multicast equipment of the channel; and if the equipment state of the terminal front equipment is abnormal, no service is provided.

In practical application, the generating module 1301, the second processing module 1302, the heartbeat message receiving module, the channel distribution information receiving module, the real-time playing information receiving module, the hot channel counting module, the hot channel information sending module, and the scheduling module may all be implemented by a CPU, an MPU, a DSP, or an FPGA, etc. in the controller.

Specifically, the computer program instructions corresponding to a multicast method in the present embodiment may be stored on a storage medium such as an optical disc, a hard disc, or a usb disk, and when the computer program instructions corresponding to a multicast method in the storage medium are read or executed by an electronic device, the steps of any of the multicast methods in the third embodiment may be implemented.

Based on the same technical concept of the foregoing embodiment, referring to fig. 12, it shows another multicast device 150 provided in an embodiment of the present invention, and the device may include: a second memory 151 and a second processor 152; wherein,

the second memory 151 for storing computer programs and data;

the second processor 152 is configured to execute the computer program stored in the memory to implement the steps of any one of the multicast methods of the foregoing third embodiments.

In practical applications, the second memory 151 may be a volatile memory, such as a RAM; or a nonvolatile memory such as a ROM, a flash memory, an HDD, or an SSD; or a combination of the above types of memories and provides instructions and data to the second processor 152.

The second processor 152 may be at least one of ASIC, DSP, DSPD, PLD, FPGA, CPU, controller, microcontroller, and microprocessor. It is to be understood that the electronic device for implementing the second processor function may be other electronic devices, and the embodiment of the present invention is not limited in particular.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, embodiments of the present invention may be provided as a method, system, or computer program product. Accordingly, the present invention may take the form of a hardware embodiment, a software embodiment, or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, the present invention may take the form of a computer program product embodied on one or more computer-usable storage media (including, but not limited to, disk storage, optical storage, and the like) having computer-usable program code embodied therein.

The present invention is described with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood that each flow and/or block of the flow diagrams and/or block diagrams, and combinations of flows and/or blocks in the flow diagrams and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, embedded processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement the function specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

The above description is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A method of multicasting, the method comprising:

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each media service corresponds to a channel, and the identification information of the media service is identification information of the corresponding channel.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein each media service corresponds to a channel and a code rate, and the identification information of the media service comprises: identification information of the corresponding channel and the corresponding code rate.

4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the hot spot channel information is obtained according to the real-time playing information of the media service of each terminal device.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the acquiring hot spot channel information comprises:

alternatively, hot channel information is received periodically.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the adjusting the current multicast service according to the hot spot channel information comprises at least one of:

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the creating the corresponding multicast service comprises:

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the delaying the multicast end time of the multicast media service comprises:

9. The method according to claim 6, wherein the deleting the multicast service corresponding to the low-popularity media service comprises:

10. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

11. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

12. The method according to claim 3 or 11, characterized in that the method further comprises:

13. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising: when the multicast service is created or deleted, the channel distribution information corresponding to the current multicast service is sent to the controller, so that the controller updates the channel distribution information corresponding to the current multicast service.

14. A method of multicasting, the method comprising:

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the generating hot spot channel information comprises:

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the generating the hot spot channel information according to the media service real-time playing information of each terminal device comprises:

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the playing the information in real time by the media service comprises: identification information of the currently playing channel.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the playing the information in real time by the media service further comprises: the code rate of the currently played media service.

19. The method of claim 14, further comprising: receiving channel distribution information corresponding to the current multicast service sent by a live broadcast management platform when the multicast service is created or deleted; updating the channel distribution information corresponding to the current multicast service according to the received channel distribution information;

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

21. A multicast apparatus, characterized in that the apparatus comprises: a first processor and a first memory for storing a computer program operable on the processor; wherein,

the first processor is adapted to perform the steps of the method of any one of claims 1 to 13 when running the computer program.

22. A multicasting apparatus characterised in that the apparatus includes a second processor and a second memory for storing a computer program capable of running on the processor; wherein,

the second processor is adapted to perform the steps of the method of any of claims 14 to 19 when running the computer program.

23. A multicast apparatus, the apparatus comprising: an acquisition module and a first processing module, wherein,

24. A multicast apparatus, the apparatus comprising: a generating module and a second processing module, wherein,

25. A computer storage medium on which a computer program is stored, characterized in that the computer program realizes the steps of the method of any one of claims 1 to 13 when executed by a processor.

26. A computer storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, the computer program, when being executed by a processor, performing the steps of the method of any one of claims 14 to 19.