Roku, Inc.
Crowdsourced prediction of CDN performance for zero buffer delivery of content

Abstract:

Disclosed herein system, apparatus, article of manufacture, method and/or computer program product embodiments, and/or combinations and sub-combinations thereof, for using technology in innovative ways to automatically and intelligently predict performance of content delivery networks (CDNs) in a crowdsourced manner in order to deliver the highest resolution content possible with little or no buffering. In some embodiments, a media device downloads and displays primary content on a display device. The media device determines that secondary content should be stitched into the display of the primary content. Accordingly, the media device requests that a crowdsource server determine a bit-rate variant of the secondary content to download. The crowdsource server determines the bit-rate variant in a crowdsourced manner such that subsequent download of the identified bit-rate variant by the media device results in a zero buffer experience. The media device downloads the determined bit-rate variant of the secondary content, and stitches the downloaded bit-rate variant of the secondary content into the display of the primary content.