Implementation strategies for efficient media fragment retrieval

Abstract

The current Web specifications such as HTML still treat video and audio resources as 'foreign' objects on the Web, especially lacking a transparent integration with current Web content. The Media Fragments URI specification is part of various efforts at W3C trying to make media a "first class citizen" on the Web. More specifically, with a Media Fragment URI, one can point to a media fragment by means of a URI, enabling people to identify, share, link, and consume media fragments in a standardized way. In this paper, we propose and evaluate a number of implementation strategies for Media Fragments. Additionally, we present two optimized implementation strategies: a Media Fragment Translation Service allowing to keep existing Web infrastructure such as Web servers and proxies and a fully integrated Media Fragments URI server that is independent of underlying media formats. Finally, we show how multiple bit rate media delivery can be deployed in a Media Fragments aware environment, using our Media Fragments URI server