Fortinet, Inc.
CONTROLLING BANDWIDTH USAGE BY MEDIA STREAMS BY LIMITING STREAMING OPTIONS PROVIDED TO CLIENT SYSTEMS

Abstract:

Systems and methods for controlling network bandwidth utilization by media streaming services are provided. According to one embodiment, a data stream associated with streaming media content being requested from an external service provider by a client device associated with a private network is intercepted by a network manager associated with the private network. Streaming options made available for streaming the streaming media content are limited by the network manager by: (i) identifying a policy applicable to the data stream; (ii) identifying a manifest specifying multiple versions in which the streaming media content is available to be streamed, within the data stream; (iii) determining the multiple versions by parsing the manifest; (iv) determining a prohibited version that exceeds a bandwidth limitation specified by the policy; (v) updating the manifest by removing information regarding the prohibited version from the manifest; and (vi) providing the updated manifest to the client device.