Dynamic Mechanism for Migrating Traffic Spikes in a Streaming Media Network

Number: 20230186196
Published: 2023-06-15
Filed: 2021-12-14
Assignee: Disney Enterprises, Inc.
Inventors: Li; Hui et al.
CPC: G06F21/10; G06F21/45; G06Q10/063116; G06Q30/0202; G06Q30/0204
Verdict: Set aside streaming traffic-management infrastructure, plumbing
Source: Google Patents · FreePatentsOnline

Abstract

A system includes a computing platform having processing hardware and a memory storing software code. The processing hardware executes the software code to receive content data identifying new content and a future release date for the new content, provide a prediction identifying a subset of the users likely to request the new content upon its release, and prioritize, based on the prediction, a schedule for pre-provisioning authentication data for accessing the new content to the subset of users. The processing hardware further executes the software code to pre-provision, using the prioritized schedule, the authentication data to the subset of users prior to the release of the new content.

Background

BACKGROUND

When highly anticipated digital media content is released, such as the latest movie in a popular movie ranchise, a new season or episodes of a hit television (TV) show, or an updated version of a popular video game, tens or hundreds of thousands of users may seek to stream that content as soon as it is available. However, having such a large number of users attempting to concurrently access the same content can overload the resources of the streaming platform providing the content, and may result in a number of service failures. For example, once platform traffic starts to exceed capacity, the platform may begin to reject user requests, may exhibit degraded performance, or both. Moreover, if platform traffic spikes to a sufficiently high level, the platform may shut down entirely, resulting in a temporary service outage. Any of these negative consequences of excess demand may take several hours to recover from and may undesirably lead to significant user frustration and disaffection.

Claims

1. A system comprising: a computing platform including a processing hardware and a system memory; the system memory storing a software code; the processing hardware configured to execute the software code to: receive content data identifying a new content and a future release date for the new content; provide a prediction identifying a subset plurality of users likely to request the new content upon release of the new content; prioritize, based on the prediction, a schedule for pre-provisioning of respective authentication data for accessing the new content to each of the subset plurality of users; and pre-provision, using the prioritized schedule, the respective authentication data to each of the subset plurality of users prior to the release of the new content. || 11. A method for authenticating playback in a network, the method comprising: receiving, over the network, content data identifying a new content and a future release date for the new content; generating a prediction identifying a subset plurality of users likely to request the new content upon release of the new content; prioritizing a schedule for pre-provisioning of respective authentication data for accessing the new content to a user device of each of the subset plurality of users; and pre-provisioning the respective authentication data to the user device of each of the subset plurality of users prior to the release of the new content; where the respective authentication data enables retrieval of the new content from a content source over the network and playback of the new content by the user device.