JP2017143475A - Distribution management apparatus, reception apparatus, distributed processing system, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an apparatus, a system, and a program for reducing delay due to aggregation of generated divided streams in stream generation processing and distribution processing using a distributed processing base.SOLUTION: A distribution management apparatus 13 in a distributed processing system 1 is configured to create a manifest file indicating division positions of material video data and storage locations of divided streams, and in response to a manifest file acquisition request received from reception apparatuses 20-1 to 20-n, transmit only the manifest file to the reception apparatus. On the basis of the received manifest file, the reception apparatus directly receives the divided streams from a plurality of processing apparatuses 12-1 to 12-n.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a distribution management apparatus, a distributed processing system including the distribution management apparatus, a receiving apparatus that communicates with the distributed processing system, a distribution management apparatus, and a program for the receiving apparatus.

  In recent years, with the speeding up of networks, there is an increasing need for large-capacity video distribution via networks. The main processing in video distribution is roughly divided into stream generation processing and stream distribution processing.

  The concept of the video distribution system will be described with reference to FIG. The material video data is input to the stream generation server 100. The stream generation server 100 compresses and encodes the material video data to generate a distribution video stream having a bit rate suitable for distribution. This process generally increases the server load.

  Further, the stream distribution server 200 distributes the video stream in response to a request from the receiving device 300. In this process, the server load increases or decreases according to the number of receiving apparatuses 300. When the number of receiving devices 300 increases during stream distribution, the server load for stream distribution processing also increases. Therefore, the generation and distribution of streams are generally processed by dedicated servers so that the processing load of each other is not affected.

  In video distribution, a system that can withstand the increased load of stream generation and distribution is necessary to cope with higher image quality and an increase in the number of receiving devices. Thus, the use of distributed processing systems that distribute video using a distributed processing platform that can increase or decrease system resources according to the load is widespread. (For example, refer nonpatent literature 1).

  FIG. 7 shows a configuration example of a distributed processing system that performs video distribution. The distributed processing system 2 performs distributed processing of stream generation processing and stream distribution processing with a plurality of processing devices (nodes). Regarding the stream generation processing, the generation management device 101 divides the material video data, and each processing device 102 compresses and encodes the divided material video data to generate a divided stream. Regarding the stream distribution process, the distribution management apparatus 201 aggregates the divided streams to generate a distribution stream and copies it to a plurality of processing apparatuses 202. At that time, the distribution management apparatus 201 manages the access of the receiving apparatus 300 so that the access to the specific processing apparatus 202 is not concentrated.

Wataru Kameyama, “Impress Standard Textbook Series Digital Content Distribution Textbook”, Impress R & D Co., Ltd., December 1, 2006, Chapter 3, pp.57-88

  FIG. 8A shows the concept of stream generation processing based on the distributed processing infrastructure, and FIG. 8B shows the concept of stream distribution processing based on the distributed processing infrastructure. In the video distribution using the distributed processing platform, as shown in FIG. 7, the divided streams generated on each processing device by the stream generation processing are once aggregated into a continuous distribution stream format, and then each of the divided management streams is transmitted from the distribution management device. Must be copied to the processing unit. However, the process of aggregating the divided streams becomes a bottleneck of the video distribution process, and there is a problem that the entire video distribution process is delayed if even one transfer delay of the divided stream occurs to the distribution management apparatus.

  An object of the present invention made in view of such circumstances is to efficiently perform stream generation processing and distribution processing on a distributed processing platform and reduce the influence of the bottleneck described above.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, a distribution management apparatus according to the present invention is a distribution management apparatus that manages distribution of a divided stream obtained by dividing material video data and compression-encoding by distributed processing, and the division position of the material video data A manifest file generation unit that creates a manifest file indicating a storage location of the divided stream, and a manifest file output unit that transmits only the manifest file to the reception device in response to a manifest file acquisition request received from the reception device; It is characterized by providing.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, a receiving apparatus according to the present invention communicates with a distribution management apparatus and a plurality of processing apparatuses, and receives a divided stream obtained by dividing material video data and compression-coding it by distributed processing. A plurality of processing devices based on the manifest file, and a manifest file acquisition unit that acquires a manifest file indicating a division position of the material video data and a storage location of the divided stream from the distribution management device And a divided stream acquisition unit that directly acquires the divided stream.

  In order to solve the above problems, a distributed processing system according to the present invention is a distributed processing system that includes a generation management device, a plurality of processing devices, and a distribution management device, and performs distributed processing. The apparatus includes a divided material video data generation unit that generates divided material video data obtained by dividing the material video data and generates division information including information indicating a division position of the material video data, and the processing device includes: A divided stream generating unit that compresses and encodes the divided material video data to generate a divided stream; and a metadata generating unit that generates metadata in which information indicating a storage location of the divided stream is added to the divided information. The distribution management device includes a manifest file generation unit that generates a manifest file of a predetermined format based on the metadata, and a reception device. Depending on the manifest file acquisition request it received from, only the manifest file, characterized in that it comprises a manifest file output unit that transmits to the receiving device.

  In order to solve the above problem, a program according to the present invention causes a computer to function as the distribution management device.

  In order to solve the above problems, a program according to the present invention causes a computer to function as the receiving device.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the delay by aggregation of the stream produced | generated by division | segmentation can be reduced in the stream production | generation process and delivery process using a distributed processing infrastructure.

It is a block diagram which shows the structural example of the distributed processing system which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structural example of the production | generation management apparatus in the distributed processing system which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structural example of the processing apparatus in the distributed processing system which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structural example of the delivery management apparatus in the distributed processing system which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structural example of the receiver which receives data from the distributed processing system which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the concept of the conventional video delivery system. It is a figure which shows the structural example of the distributed processing system which performs the conventional video delivery. It is a figure which shows the concept of the stream production | generation process and stream delivery process by the conventional distributed infrastructure.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a distributed processing system 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the example illustrated in FIG. 1, the distributed processing system 1 includes a generation management device 11 that functions as a generation management node and a plurality of processing devices 12 (12-1, 12-2,..., 12− that function as processing nodes. n) and a distribution management device 13 functioning as a distribution management node. In the present embodiment, input and output of data and streams related to video are indicated by solid arrows, and input and output of other information are indicated by broken arrows.

  The distributed processing system 1 divides the input material video data. Then, image processing is performed on the divided material video data by distributed processing to generate a divided stream, and one or more receiving devices 20 (20-1, 20-2, 20-3, ..., 20-n). ).

  The receiving device 20 communicates with the distribution management device 13 and the plurality of processing devices 12. 1, for the sake of convenience, only the receiving device 20-1 shows an arrow for receiving data from the distribution management device 13 and the plurality of processing devices 12, but the other receiving devices 20-2, 20-3,... , 20-n receive data from the distribution management device 13 and the plurality of processing devices 12 in the same manner.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of the generation management apparatus 11. The generation management device 11 illustrated in FIG. 2 includes a divided material video data generation unit 111 and a management unit 112.

  The divided material video data generation unit 111 divides the input material video data by the number of frames in units of several seconds. Specifically, division is performed in units of GOP (Group of Pictures). Then, the divided material video data (hereinafter referred to as “divided material video data”) is transmitted to each processing device 12.

  In addition, the divided material video data generation unit 111 generates division information including information indicating the division position of the material video data (for example, the time corresponding to the frame at the division position), the file name of the divided material video data, and the like. The division information corresponding to the divided material video data is transmitted to each processing device 12.

  The management unit 112 acquires resource information including the resource usage status of the CPU and HDD of each processing device 12 from each processing device 12 and manages the load so as not to concentrate on a specific processing device 12. The divided material video data generation unit 111 transmits the divided material video data and the division information to each processing device 12 based on an instruction from the management unit 112.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of the processing device 12. The processing apparatus 12 illustrated in FIG. 3 includes a divided stream generation unit 121, a storage unit 122, a divided stream output unit 123, a metadata generation unit 124, and a resource information generation unit 125.

  The divided stream generation unit 121 compresses and encodes the divided material video data input from the generation management apparatus 11 to generate a divided stream, and stores the divided stream in the storage unit 122. It is assumed that the compression encoding uses an existing technology such as the MPEG standard. The divided stream generation unit 121 may perform a plurality of types of compression encoding on the same divided material video data. For example, by preparing a plurality of divided streams having different compression coding rates, the receiving apparatus 20 can select and acquire a divided stream having an appropriate size according to the communication environment.

  When receiving the split stream acquisition request from the receiving device 20, the split stream output unit 123 transmits the split stream stored in the storage unit 122 to the receiving device 20.

  The metadata generation unit 124 adds the metadata obtained by adding the information (for example, IP address) indicating the storage location of the divided stream generated by the divided stream generation unit 121 to the division information input from the generation management device 11. 13 is output. When the divided stream generation unit 121 performs a plurality of types of compression coding on the same divided material video data, the compression coding parameters (resolution, bit rate information, etc.) for each divided stream are added to the metadata. Include. Note that information (processing device name) for identifying each processing device 12 may be included in the metadata.

  The resource information generation unit 125 transmits the resource information to the generation management device 11.

  FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of the distribution management device 13. The distribution management device 13 illustrated in FIG. 4 includes a manifest file generation unit 131, a storage unit 132, and a manifest file output unit 133.

  The manifest file generation unit 131 receives metadata from each processing device 12 and manages the correspondence between each divided stream and the processing device 12. Then, a manifest file in a predetermined format is generated based on the metadata and stored in the storage unit 132. The manifest file is a file in which information necessary for playback of the distribution stream (including information indicating the division position of the material video data and information indicating the storage location of the divided stream) is described. The manifest file format is, for example, MPEG. -MPD (Media Presentation Description) format based on the DASH (Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP) standard.

  When the manifest file output unit 133 receives a manifest file acquisition request from the reception device 20, the manifest file output unit 133 transmits the manifest file stored in the storage unit 132 to the reception device 20 in response to the acquisition request. In this way, the distribution management device 13 transmits only the manifest file to the receiving device 20.

  FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of the receiving device 20. The receiving device 20 illustrated in FIG. 5 includes a manifest file acquisition unit 201, a divided stream acquisition unit 202, a storage unit 203, and a distribution stream reproduction unit 204.

  Prior to the acquisition of the divided stream, the manifest file acquisition unit 201 requests the distribution management device 13 to acquire a manifest file and acquires the manifest file from the distribution management device 13.

  The divided stream acquisition unit 202 makes a divided stream acquisition request to each processing device 12 based on the information indicating the division position of the video and the information indicating the storage location of the divided stream, which are included in the manifest file. A divided stream is directly acquired from the processing device 12 and stored in the storage unit 203.

  The distribution stream reproduction unit 204 reads the divided streams stored in the storage unit 203 in the reproduction order and reproduces the video (distribution stream).

  Conventionally, the divided streams are aggregated by the distribution management device. However, as described above, the distribution management device 13 according to the present invention receives only the metadata from each processing device 12, and each receiving device 20 receives from the processing device 12. Receive and aggregate split streams directly. Since the metadata has a smaller data capacity than the divided stream, the transfer delay to the distribution management apparatus 13 is also reduced, and the influence of the delay on the entire video distribution process can be reduced.

  It should be noted that a computer can be suitably used to function as the distribution management apparatus 13 described above, and such a computer stores a program describing processing contents for realizing each function of the distribution management apparatus 13. This program can be realized by reading out and executing this program by the CPU of the computer. This program can be recorded on a computer-readable recording medium.

  In addition, a computer can be preferably used to function as the receiving device 20 described above, and such a computer stores a program describing processing contents for realizing each function of the receiving device 20 in a storage unit of the computer. It can be realized by reading and executing this program by the CPU of the computer. This program can be recorded on a computer-readable recording medium.

  Although the above embodiment has been described as a representative example, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that many changes and substitutions can be made within the spirit and scope of the invention. Therefore, the present invention should not be construed as being limited by the above-described embodiments, and various modifications and changes can be made without departing from the scope of the claims. For example, a plurality of constituent blocks described in the embodiments can be combined into one, or one constituent block can be divided.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Distributed processing system 11 Generation management apparatus 12 Processing apparatus 13 Distribution management apparatus 20 Receiving apparatus 111 Division material video data generation part 112 Management part 121 Division stream generation part 122 Storage part 123 Division stream output part 124 Metadata generation part 125 Resource information generation Unit 131 Manifest file generation unit 132 Storage unit 133 Manifest file output unit 201 Manifest file acquisition unit 202 Divided stream acquisition unit 203 Storage unit 204 Distribution stream reproduction unit

Claims (5)

A distribution management device that manages distribution of a divided stream obtained by dividing material video data and compression-encoding by distributed processing,
A manifest file generation unit that creates a manifest file indicating a division position of the material video data and a storage location of the divided stream;
In response to the manifest file acquisition request received from the receiving device, a manifest file output unit that transmits only the manifest file to the receiving device;
A distribution management device comprising: A receiving device that communicates with a distribution management device and a plurality of processing devices, receives a divided stream obtained by dividing the material video data and compression-coding the distributed video processing,
A manifest file acquisition unit for acquiring a manifest file indicating a division position of the material video data and a storage location of the division stream from the distribution management device;
A divided stream acquisition unit that directly acquires the divided streams from the plurality of processing devices based on the manifest file;
A receiving apparatus comprising: A distributed processing system that includes a generation management device, a plurality of processing devices, and a distribution management device and performs distributed processing,
The generation management device includes:
A divided material video data generating unit that generates divided material video data obtained by dividing the material video data and generates division information including information indicating a division position of the material video data,
The processor is
A divided stream generating unit that compresses and encodes the divided material video data to generate a divided stream;
A metadata generation unit that generates metadata obtained by adding information indicating a storage location of the divided stream to the division information;
The distribution management device includes:
A manifest file generator that generates a manifest file of a predetermined format based on the metadata;
A distributed processing system comprising: a manifest file output unit that transmits only the manifest file to the receiving device in response to a manifest file acquisition request received from the receiving device.   A program for causing a computer to function as the distribution management device according to claim 1.   A program for causing a computer to function as the receiving device according to claim 2.

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