System and method for routing media

• US 10,009,637 B2
• Filed: 09/01/2017
• Issued: 06/26/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 01/19/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: SITO Mobile R&D IP, LLC
• Original Assignee: SITO Mobile R&D IP, LLC
• Inventors: Jennings, Charles A, Bate, Donald H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Keehn, Richard G
• Application Number:
  US15/693,811
• Publication Number:
  US 20180014045A1
• Time in Patent Office: 298 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0274 Split fees
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/724 at intermediate nodes, e.g. resource reservation protocol [RSVP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/61 for supporting one-way streaming services, e.g. Internet radio
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/613 for the control of the source by the destination control signals issued by the client directed to the server or network components specially adapted for selective content distribution H04N21/637
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/762 at the source reformatting of additional data in video distribution servers H04N21/2355
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/303 Terminal profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/567 Integrating service provisioning from a plurality of service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/60 Scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests, e.g. requests for application data transmissions using the analysis and optimisation of the required network resources admission control or resource allocation H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23424 involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for inserting or substituting an advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23805 Controlling the feeding rate to the network, e.g. by controlling the video pump
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2385 Channel allocation H04N21/266 takes precedence; Bandwidth allocation H04N21/24 takes precedence ; allocation of channels according to the instantaneous demands of the users in time-division multiplex systems H04J3/1682; admission control, resource allocation in open networks H04L12/5692; arrangements for maintenance or administration in data switching networks involving bandwidth and capacity management H04L41/0896; negotiating bandwidth in wireless networks H04W28/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2543 Billing , e.g. for subscription services payment schemes, architectures or protocols G06Q20/00; e-commerce G06Q30/00; arrangements for billing for the use of broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/21
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/262 Content or additional data distribution scheduling, e.g. sending additional data at off-peak times, updating software modules, calculating the carousel transmission frequency, delaying a video stream transmission, generating play-lists scheduling strategies for dispatcher in multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/4881; arrangements for scheduling broadcast services or broadcast-related services H04H60/06; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10; establishing a time schedule or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/62
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/458 Scheduling content for creating a personalised stream, e.g. by combining a locally stored advertisement with an incoming stream; Updating operations, e.g. for OS modules ; time-related management operations arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast or during the distribution H04H20/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4623 : Processing of entitlement messages, e.g. ECM [Entitlement Control Message] or EMM [Entitlement Management Message] arrangements for conditional access to broadcast information or to broadcast-related services H04H60/14
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47214 : for content reservation or setting reminders; for requesting event notification, e.g. of sport results or stock market stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; notification of incoming messages in packet switching networks H04L51/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 : involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8355 : involving usage data, e.g. number of copies or viewings allowed
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/165 : Centralised control of user terminal subsequent to an upstream request signal H04N7/17345; Registering at central by two-way working H04N7/17309
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 : Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

In one aspect, a method for managing streaming of video content to a client device includes providing the video content to a content distribution network for storage in a plurality of geographically separated resources of the content distribution network and receiving, from the client device via a packet-based telecommunication network, signaling to have the stored video content streamed to the client device. In response to the received signaling, one or more files are transmitted to the client device via the packet-based telecommunication network, each of the one or more files being in a format compatible with a media player on the client device, the one or more files comprising (i) an identification of one or more of the resources of the content distribution network available to facilitate streaming of one or more segments of the stored video content to the client device, the identification being dependent at least in part on a relationship between a geographic location of the client device and geographic locations of the resources of the content distribution network, and (ii) an identification of an advertising server, the identification of the advertising server being dependent at least in part on a relationship between the geographic location of the client device and a geographic location of the advertising server, wherein the one or more files, when processed by the client device, cause the client device to communicate with the identified one or more resources of the content distribution network and the advertising server to cause the one or more segments of the stored video to be streamed to the client device by the identified one or more resources of the content distribution network and cause one or more advertisements to be streamed from the advertising server to the client device.

Claims

1. A method for managing streaming of video content to a client device, the method comprising:

providing the video content to a content distribution network for storage in a plurality of geographically separated resources of the content distribution network;

receiving, from the client device via a packet-based telecommunication network, signaling to have the stored video content streamed to the client device; and

in response to the received signaling, transmitting one or more files to the client device via the packet-based telecommunication network, each of the one or more files being in a format compatible with a media player on the client device, the one or more files comprising (i) an identification of one or more of the resources of the content distribution network available to facilitate streaming of one or more segments of the stored video content to the client device, the identification being dependent at least in part on a relationship between a geographic location of the client device and geographic locations of the resources of the content distribution network, and (ii) an identification of an advertising server, the identification of the advertising server being dependent at least in part on a relationship between the geographic location of the client device and a geographic location of the advertising server, wherein the one or more files, when processed by the client device, cause the client device to communicate with the identified one or more resources of the content distribution network and the advertising server to cause the one or more segments of the stored video to be streamed to the client device by the identified one or more resources of the content distribution network and cause one or more advertisements to be streamed from the advertising server to the client device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more files, when processed by the client device, cause the client device to communicate with the identified one or more resources of the content distribution network and the advertising server to cause the one or more advertisements to be streamed to the client device in a predefined sequence with the one or more segments of the stored video.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the identification of the one or more resources of the content distribution network includes one or more uniform resource locators (URLs) associated with the one or more resources.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the identification of the advertising server includes a uniform resource locator (URL) associated with the advertising server.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the identification of the one or more of the resources of the content distribution network available to facilitate streaming of the one or more segments of the stored video content to the client device is further dependent on an attribute of the client device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the identification of the advertising server is further dependent on an attribute of the client device.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a settlement for sharing between at least two parties a percentage of revenue associated with streaming the one or more advertisements to the client device.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving from the content owner rules specifying at least one of an age restriction, a geographic restriction, and a time restriction for the streaming of the stored video content to the client device, wherein the one or more files, when processed by the client device, cause the client device to communicate with the identified one or more resources of the content distribution network and the advertising server to cause the one or more segments of the stored video to be streamed to the client device by the identified one or more resources of the content distribution network and cause the one or more advertisements to be streamed from the advertising server to the client device in compliance with the one or more rules.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the video content is one of a movie, a television show, and a live event.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

monitoring a level of service for streaming the stored video to the client device by the identified one or more resources of the content distribution network;

upon detection of a degradation of the level of service, transmitting to the client device, via the packet-based telecommunication network, an identification of another of the one or more of the resources of the content distribution network available to facilitate streaming of one or more other segments of the stored video content to the client device to cause the client device to communicate with the identified other one or more of the resources of the content distribution network to cause the one or more other segments of the stored video to be streamed to the client device by the another one of the resources of the content distribution network.

11. A method for managing streaming of video content to a client device, the method comprising:

providing the video content to a content distribution network for storage in a plurality of geographically separated resources of the content distribution network;

receiving, from the client device via a packet-based telecommunication network, signaling to have the stored video content streamed to the client device;

in response to the received signaling, transmitting one or more files to the client device via the packet-based telecommunication network, each of the one or more files being in a format compatible with a media player on the client device, the one or more files comprising (i) an identification of a first resource of the content distribution network available to facilitate streaming of the stored video content to the client device, the identification being dependent at least in part on a relationship between a geographic location of the client device and geographic locations of the resources of the content distribution network, and (ii) an identification of an advertising server, the identification of the advertising server being dependent at least in part on a relationship between the geographic location of the client device and a geographic location of the advertising server, wherein the one or more files, when processed by the client device, cause the client device to communicate with the first resource of the content distribution network and the advertising server to cause the stored video to be streamed to the client device by the first resource of the content distribution network and cause an advertisement to be streamed from the advertising server to the client device;

monitoring a level of service for the streaming of the stored video to the client device by the first resource of the content distribution network; and

upon detection of a degradation of the level of service, transmitting, to the client device via the packet-based telecommunication network, an identification of a second resource of the content distribution network available to facilitate streaming of a remaining portion of the stored video content to the client device to cause the client device to communicate with the second resource of the content distribution network to cause the stored video to be streamed to the client device by the second resource of the content distribution network instead of the first resource of the content distribution network.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the one or more files, when processed by the client device, cause the client device to communicate with the second resource of the content distribution network and the advertising server to cause the advertisement to be streamed to the client device in a predefined sequence with the stored video.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the identification of the first resource of the content distribution network includes a uniform resource locator (URL) associated with the first resource and the identification of the second resource of the content distribution network includes a uniform resource locator (URL) associated with the second resource.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the identification of the advertising server includes a uniform resource locator (URL) associated with the advertising server.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the identification of the second resource of the content distribution network is dependent at least in part on the relationship between the geographic location of the client device and the geographic locations of the resources of the content distribution network.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the identification of the first resource of the content distribution network is further dependent on an attribute of the client device.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein the identification of the advertising server is further dependent on an attribute of the client device.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising generating a settlement for sharing between at least two parties a percentage of revenue associated with streaming the advertisement to the client device.

19. The method of claim 11, further comprising receiving from the content owner rules specifying at least one of an age restriction, a geographic restriction, and a time restriction for streaming the stored video content to the client device, wherein the one or more files, when processed by the client device, cause the client device to communicate with the first resource of the content distribution network to cause the stored video to be streamed to the client device by the first resource of the content distribution network in compliance with the one or more rules.

20. The method of claim 11, wherein the video content is one of a movie, a television show, and a live event.