JP2003044383A - High speed digital contents distributing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a high speed digital contents distributing system which can distribute a large quantity of data at high speed. SOLUTION: The system is provided with the Internet 10, a transmission site server 13 receiving the distribution request of a prescribed digital contents from a user terminal 11 through the Internet 10 and four contents distribution servers 16a to 16d which are connected to the Internet 10 and store contents segments obtained by dividing the prescribed digital contents. The transmission site server 13 transmits URL of the contents segments 17a to 17d in the four contents distribution servers 16a to 16d to the user terminal 11 requesting the transmission of the prescribed digital contents. The contents distribution servers 16a to 16d distribute the contents segments 17a to 17d to the user terminal 11 in accordance with the distribution request from the user terminal 11.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a high-speed digital content distribution system, and more particularly to a high-speed digital content distribution system capable of distributing digital content consisting of a large amount of data at high speed.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Recently, through the Internet, photographs,
It has become possible to distribute still images such as paintings, moving images such as movies, music data, and digital contents such as software. These digital contents are performed in the procedure shown in FIG. 3, for example. First, a user accesses a home page or the like of the originating site server 13 from a user terminal 11 such as a computer or a mobile phone connected to the Internet 10 via a terminal server 12 provided by an Internet provider or the like, and displays it on the home page. Selected desired digital content. When the desired digital content is selected, the UR of the desired digital content is sent from the originating site server 13.
L (uniform resource locator) is transmitted to the user terminal 11. Note that, in FIG. 3, the management terminal 15 is a computer for performing maintenance management of the transmission site server 13. Next, the user terminal 11 accesses the site of the URL from the URL received from the originating site server 13. In this example, the URL is assumed to be in the content distribution server 14. Next, the user terminal 11
When a request is issued from the content distribution server 14 to distribute the target digital content, distribution of the digital content is started. Then, when the user terminal 11 receives the data of all the digital contents, the distribution of the digital contents is completed.

[0003]

The above-mentioned digital contents are accumulated year by year, and the data size thereof is gradually increasing with the recent acceleration of information technology. In addition, the spread of the Internet has increased the number of users of digital content on the Internet, and the number of user terminals accessing the content distribution server 14 has increased.
In some cases, the communication speed at the time of delivering digital contents becomes low. Such a decrease in communication speed
Since the content delivery server 14 is lacking in data transmission processing capability, it cannot be solved even if the Internet is configured by a high-speed communication medium. This is because the content distribution server 14 cannot send data at a speed commensurate with the allowable communication speed of the communication medium, and cannot distribute digital content that makes use of the high speed of the communication medium.

The present invention solves the above problems of the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a high-speed digital contents distribution system capable of distributing a large amount of data constituting digital contents at high speed. It is to be.

[0005]

A high-speed digital content distribution system of the present invention includes a communication network, a server for a transmission site that receives a distribution request for predetermined digital content from a user terminal via the communication network, and the communication network. And a plurality of content distribution servers each storing a content segment obtained by dividing the predetermined digital content, wherein the transmission site server is configured to transmit the predetermined digital content to the user terminal, The URL of each of the content segments in the plurality of content distribution servers is transmitted to the user terminal, and each of the plurality of content distribution servers responds to a distribution request from the user terminal based on the URL. The segment Characterized in that it delivered to over The terminal.

In this way, if the digital content is divided into a plurality of content segments and stored in the plurality of content distribution servers separately, even when the content segment is distributed from one content distribution server, distribution is performed. Even if the speed decreases, the size of the data to be distributed by the content distribution server is a small fraction of the data of the entire digital content, so the time required to distribute the entire data of the digital content is less affected. Become.

Here, in the present invention, the communication network may include the Internet, a local area network, a wide area network, a commercial network, and a combination thereof.

The digital contents are selected from the group consisting of still images, moving images, music, programs and combinations thereof.

[0009]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a high-speed digital content distribution system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
The high-speed digital content distribution system of this embodiment is
This is a high-speed digital content distribution system that distributes predetermined digital content to the user terminal 11 at high speed in response to a distribution request from the user terminal 11 connected to the Internet 10 via the terminal server 12. As the user terminal 11, for example, a personal computer, a mobile phone or the like is used. The high-speed digital content distribution system of the present embodiment includes a transmission site server 13 connected to the Internet 10, and the transmission site server 13 is a user terminal 1 via the Internet 10.
It fulfills the function of accepting a distribution request from one to a predetermined digital content. This function is realized, for example, by displaying an icon symbolizing digital contents, an indicator such as a link destination on a home page, and a user clicking the indicator on a normal Internet operation. In the present embodiment, the management of the home page displayed by the originating site server 13 is performed by the management terminal 15.

In the high-speed digital content distribution system of this embodiment, there are four digital contents to be distributed.
It is divided into one content segment and stored in each of the four content distribution servers 16a to 16d. In addition, in the present specification, each of the divided digital contents is referred to as a “content segment”.

FIG. 2 exemplifies a still image as digital content. The still image shown in FIG.
The content segment is divided into four equal segments 17a to 17d. These four content segments 17a-
17d includes the four content distribution servers 1 as described above.
6a to 16d, respectively. These content distribution servers 16a to 16d are the Internet 10
And function to deliver the content segments 17a to 17d to the user terminal 11 in response to a delivery request from the user terminal 11.

The high-speed digital content distribution system of this embodiment having the above configuration functions as follows. First, a user who wishes to deliver digital content accesses the originating site server 13 from the user terminal 11. When you access the originating site server 13,
A home page including an icon of a desired digital content and an indicator such as a link destination is displayed on the user terminal 11 from the server 13 for the originating site. The user clicks an icon or the like on the home page and indicates that he / she wants to distribute the digital contents, by the server 13 for the originating site.
Tell. Next, the transmission site server 13 sends the URLs of the four content segments 17a to 17d constituting the digital content desired by the user to the user terminal 11
To transmit.

Next, four content segments 17a
The user terminals 11 that have received the URLs of 17 d from the four content distribution servers 1 based on these URLs.
6a to 16d are accessed. After that, the content segments 17a to 1 placed on the site indicated by the above four URLs with respect to the content distribution servers 16a to 16d.
Request 7d delivery. Upon receiving this distribution request, the content distribution servers 16a to 16d start transmitting the content segments 17a to 17d to the originating site server 13, respectively.

The user terminal 11 sequentially receives the content segments 17a to 17d transmitted from the respective content distribution servers 16a to 16d in a time division manner, and finally completes the display of the digital content as shown in FIG. 2 on its display. It will be.

In the above, for example, the distribution of the content segment 17a by the content distribution server 16a is
Usually, the distribution is performed in parallel with the distribution to the user terminals other than the user terminal 11, so that the distribution speed of the content segment 17a is set by the user terminal 11 to the content distribution server 16a.
Will be changed depending on the total number of user terminals connected to the content distribution server 16a at the time of requesting the distribution of the content segment 17a. In the present embodiment, if the delivery speed of the content segment 17a from the content delivery server 16a is slow because the number of user terminals connected to the content delivery server 16a is very large, the user terminal 11 Then, it is switched to the reception of the content segments 17b to 17d from the other content distribution servers 16b to 16d. And
When the delivery speed of the content segment 17a from the content delivery server 16a is recovered, the content segment 17a is switched to reception again. This allows
Compared with the case where all digital contents are distributed from one conventional content distribution server, the user terminal 11
Will be able to receive digital content faster. In addition, in the above, the content distribution server 1
Even if the delivery speed of the content segment 17a from 6a does not recover, the size of the content segment 17a that the content delivery server 16a handles is one-fourth of the entire digital content, so even if the delivery speed is low, The influence of the delay in the delivery of the content segment 17a to the whole can be small. Here, the case where the transmission speed of the content segment 17a by the content distribution server 16a is low has been described, but the same effect as above can be obtained even when the distribution speed of the content segments 17b to 17d by the content distribution servers 16b to 16d is low.

In the above description, the case where the digital content is equally divided into four content segments has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the content can be divided into a plurality of content segments other than four. Also, the content segment can be divided into different-sized content segments, and further, can be divided into different-shaped content segments. Further, in the above, the originating site server 13 and the content distribution servers 16a to 16d are used.
Although the description has been given of the case where the and are separately provided, the present invention may have a configuration in which the server 13 for the originating site also serves as one of the content distribution servers.

Further, although the still image is taken as the digital content in the above, the present invention is not limited to this, and the present invention can be applied to other digital content such as a moving image, music and a program. In addition, although the case where the communication network is the Internet has been described above, the present invention is not limited to this, and also applies to other local area networks, wide area networks, commercial networks, and combinations thereof. be able to.

[0018]

In the high-speed digital content distribution system of the present invention, the digital content is divided into a plurality of content segments, and each content segment is separately stored in the plurality of content distribution servers. When the delivery speed of the content segment from is decreased, the content segment delivered from another content delivery server can be received first, and the content segment can be received after the delivery speed is recovered. It is possible to distribute digital contents at higher speed.

Further, even if the delivery speed of the content segment from the content delivery server whose delivery speed has decreased is not recovered, the size of the content segment handled by the content delivery server is smaller than that of the entire digital content. Even if the distribution speed is low, the effect of the decrease in the distribution speed of the content segment on the whole will be small. Therefore, even when the delivery speed of some of the plurality of content delivery servers is reduced, it is possible to deliver digital content faster than before.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a high-speed digital content distribution system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram exemplifying a still image as digital content.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a conventional transmission procedure of digital contents.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 Internet 11 user terminal 12 Terminal side server 13 Originating site server 15 Management terminal 16a to 17d Content distribution server 17a to 17d Content segment

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A communication network, a transmission site server that receives a distribution request for predetermined digital content from a user terminal via the communication network, and a content segment that is connected to the communication network and divides the predetermined digital content. A plurality of content distribution servers that store the content distribution server, wherein the origination site server provides the user terminal that requests distribution of the predetermined digital content to each of the content segments in the plurality of content distribution servers. The URL is transmitted to the user terminal, and each of the plurality of content distribution servers
In response to a delivery request from the user terminal based on RL,
A high-speed digital content distribution system, wherein the content segment is distributed to the user terminal. 2. The high speed according to claim 1, wherein the communication network comprises one selected from the group consisting of the Internet, a local area network, a wide area network, a commercial network and combinations thereof. Digital content distribution system. 3. The high-speed digital content distribution system according to claim 2, wherein the communication network includes the Internet. 4. The high-speed digital content distribution system according to claim 1, wherein the digital content is selected from the group consisting of still images, moving images, music, programs, and combinations thereof.