Monitoring the performance of a content player

• US 10,009,241 B1
• Filed: 09/24/2014
• Issued: 06/26/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Conviva Inc.
• Original Assignee: Conviva Inc.
• Inventors: Ganjam, Aditya R., Huebsch, Ryan J., Lakshminarayanan, Karthik K., Necula, George C., Stoica, Ion, Zhang, Hui, Zhan, Jibin
• Primary Examiner(s): Whipple, Brian
• Application Number:
  US14/495,842
• Time in Patent Office: 1,371 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4625 Single bridge functionality, e.g. connection of two networks over a single bridge
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/065 related to network devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/00 Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD] real-time bi-directional transmission of motion video data H04N7/14 ; broadcast or conference over packet switching networks H04L12/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/254 Management at additional data server, e.g. shopping server, rights management server arrangements for maintenance or administration in data networks H04L41/00; network services using third party service providers H04L67/53
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44204 Monitoring of content usage, e.g. the number of times a movie has been viewed, copied or the amount which has been watched monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; protecting generic digital content where the protection is independent of the precise nature of the content G06F21/10; arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services in broadcast systems H04H60/31
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4424 Monitoring of the internal components or processes of the client device, e.g. CPU or memory load, processing speed, timer, counter or percentage of the hard disk space used error monitoring in general G06F11/30; arrangements for monitoring conditions of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/32; diagnosis, testing or measuring for television receivers H04N17/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6547 comprising parameters, e.g. for client setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38

Abstract

Monitoring performance data associated with a content player is disclosed. Information relating to the state of a content player is obtained on a time driven basis. At least a portion of the obtained information is reported, via a communications interface, to a content distribution monitoring server.

Claims

1. A system, including:

a monitoring module included in a client, the monitoring module configured to, using a set of one or more processors;

collect information relating to a state of a content player deployed on the client, wherein the collecting of the information is dynamically adjustable;

report, from the client, and via a communications interface, at least a portion of the information collected by the monitoring module included in the client to a remote content distribution monitoring server, wherein the reporting is dynamically adjustable; and

in response to a change in a measurement associated with a content player buffer of the content player, dynamically adjust at least one of the collecting and the reporting; and

a memory coupled to the set of one or more processors and configured to provide the set of one or more processors with instructions.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the monitoring module is configured to dynamically adjust at least one of an amount of information collected and a frequency of information collection.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the monitoring module is configured to dynamically adjust the collecting of the information based at least in part on resource constraints.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the monitoring module is configured to dynamically adjust the collecting of the information based at least in part on an experienced quality.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the monitoring module is configured to dynamically adjust at least one of an amount of information reported and a frequency of the reporting.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the monitoring module is configured to dynamically adjust the reporting based at least in part on an experienced quality.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the monitoring module is configured to dynamically adjust the reporting based at least in part on an instruction provided by the remote content distribution monitoring server.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the remote content distribution monitoring server is configured to provide the instruction based at least in part on a resource utilization rule associated with the remote content distribution monitoring server.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the monitoring module is configured to dynamically adjust an amount of detail reported.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the monitoring module is configured to dynamically adjust the at least one of the collecting and the reporting in response to a change in an amount of content in the content player buffer.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the monitoring module is configured to dynamically decrease a time period associated with the at least one of the collecting and the reporting in response to an increase in the amount of content in the content player buffer.

12. The system of claim 10 wherein the monitoring module is configured to dynamically increase a time period associated with the at least one of the collecting and the reporting in response to a decrease in the amount of content in the content player buffer.

13. The system of claim 1 wherein the monitoring module is configured to dynamically adjust the at least one of the collecting and the reporting in response to a change in a buffering ratio that is determined based at least in part on an amount of time that the client experienced buffering and a playing time of the client.

14. A method, comprising:

collecting, by a monitoring module included in a client and using a set of one or more processors, information relating to a state of a content player deployed on the client, wherein the collecting of the information is dynamically adjustable;

reporting, from the client, and via a communications interface, at least a portion of the information collected by the monitoring module included in the client to a remote content distribution monitoring server, wherein the reporting is dynamically adjustable; and

in response to a change in a measurement associated with a content player buffer of the content player, dynamically adjusting at least one of the collecting and the reporting.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the adjusting includes dynamically adjusting at least one of an amount of information collected and a frequency of information collection.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein the adjusting includes dynamically adjusting at least one of an amount of information reported and a frequency of the reporting.

17. A computer program product embodied in a non-transitory computer readable storage medium and comprising computer instructions for:

collecting, by a monitoring module included in a client and using a set of one or more processors, information relating to a state of a content player deployed on the client, wherein the collecting of the information is dynamically adjustable;

report, from the client, and via a communications interface, at least a portion of the information collected by the monitoring module included in the client to a content distribution monitoring server, wherein the reporting is dynamically adjustable; and

in response to a change in a measurement associated with a content player buffer of the content player, dynamically adjusting at least one of the collecting and the reporting.

18. The computer program product of claim 17 wherein the adjusting includes dynamically adjusting at least one of an amount of information collected and a frequency of information collection.

19. The computer program product of claim 18 wherein the adjusting includes dynamically adjusting at least one of an amount of information reported and a frequency of the reporting.