Opportunistic delivery of cacheable content in a communications network
First Claim
1. A gateway system for delayed content delivery in a communications infrastructure that provides sharing of at least a communications link when communicating with at least some of a plurality of subscriber terminals, the gateway system comprising:
- a content processing subsystem configured to;
receive a plurality of content objects from a plurality of content sources;
determine if the content object is a delayable object; and
assign each content object determined to be a delayable object to a delaycast queue; and
a communications processing subsystem communicatively coupled with the content processing subsystem and configured to;
identify next-scheduled data from an associated content object in the delaycast queue;
determine dynamically that excess capacity is presently available on the communications link; and
assign the next-scheduled data to a service flow for communication over the communications link within the excess capacity;
wherein the communications processing subsystem is configured to determine that the excess capacity is presently available on the communications link by;
determining that more than a predetermined threshold amount of excess capacity is presently available on the communications link,wherein the content processing subsystem is configured to assign the next-scheduled data to the service flow for communication over the communications link only when the predetermined threshold amount of excess capacity is presently available on the identified communications link.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Systems and methods are described for using opportunistically delayed delivery of content to address sub-optimal bandwidth resource usage in network infrastructures that allow subscribers to share forward link resources. According to some embodiments, content is identified as delayable and assigned to a delaycast queue and/or service flow. For example, a server system of a satellite communications system identifies content that can be delayed to exploit future excess link capacity through multicasting and to exploit subscriber-side storage resources. Some implementations attempt to exploit any excess link resources at any time, while others exploit unused bandwidth only during certain times or when a certain threshold of resources is available. Various embodiments also provide content scoring and/or other prioritization techniques for optimizing exploitation of the delaycast queue.
152 Citations
19 Claims
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1. A gateway system for delayed content delivery in a communications infrastructure that provides sharing of at least a communications link when communicating with at least some of a plurality of subscriber terminals, the gateway system comprising:
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a content processing subsystem configured to; receive a plurality of content objects from a plurality of content sources; determine if the content object is a delayable object; and assign each content object determined to be a delayable object to a delaycast queue; and a communications processing subsystem communicatively coupled with the content processing subsystem and configured to; identify next-scheduled data from an associated content object in the delaycast queue; determine dynamically that excess capacity is presently available on the communications link; and assign the next-scheduled data to a service flow for communication over the communications link within the excess capacity; wherein the communications processing subsystem is configured to determine that the excess capacity is presently available on the communications link by; determining that more than a predetermined threshold amount of excess capacity is presently available on the communications link, wherein the content processing subsystem is configured to assign the next-scheduled data to the service flow for communication over the communications link only when the predetermined threshold amount of excess capacity is presently available on the identified communications link. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A gateway system for delayed content delivery in a communications infrastructure that provides sharing of at least a communications link when communicating with at least some of a plurality of subscriber terminals, the gateway system comprising:
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a content processing subsystem configured to; receive a plurality of content objects from a plurality of content sources;
determine if the content object is a delayable object; and
assign each content object determined to be a delayable object to a delaycast queue; anda communications processing subsystem communicatively coupled with the content processing subsystem and configured to; identify next-scheduled data from an associated content object in the delaycast queue; determine dynamically that excess capacity is presently available on the communications link; and assign the next-scheduled data to a service flow for communication over the communications link within the excess capacity; wherein the content processing subsystem is configured to analyze each content object to determine if the content object is a delayable object by; determining that an object size associated with the content object is above a threshold object size, or performing steps comprising; deterministically chunking the content object into a plurality of data blocks; generating at least one fingerprint from the data blocks; comparing the at least one fingerprint to a library of previously generated fingerprints to characterize the content object as a delayable object. - View Dependent Claims (14)
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15. A gateway system for delayed content delivery in a communications infrastructure that provides sharing of at least a communications link when communicating with at least some of a plurality of subscriber terminals, the gateway system comprising:
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a content processing subsystem configured to; receive a plurality of content objects from a plurality of content sources; determine if the content object is a delayable object; and assign each content object determined to be a delayable object to a delaycast queue; and a communications processing subsystem communicatively coupled with the content processing subsystem and configured to; identify next-scheduled data from an associated content object in the delaycast queue; determine dynamically that excess capacity is presently available on the communications link; and assign the next-scheduled data to a service flow for communication over the communications link within the excess capacity; wherein the content processing subsystem is configured to prioritize each content object in the delaycast queue according to at least one of an object size of the content object or a popularity of the content object. - View Dependent Claims (17)
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16. The gateway system of 15, wherein the communications link is one of a plurality of carriers on one of a plurality of spot beams serviced by the communications infrastructure.
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18. A gateway system for delayed content delivery in a communications infrastructure that provides sharing of at least a communications link when communicating with at least some of a plurality of subscriber terminals, the gateway system comprising:
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a content processing subsystem configured to; receive a plurality of content objects from a plurality of content sources; determine if the content object is a delayable object; and assign each content object determined to be a delayable object to a delaycast queue; and a communications processing subsystem communicatively coupled with the content processing subsystem and configured to; identify next-scheduled data from an associated content object in the delaycast queue; determine dynamically that excess capacity is presently available on the communications link; and assign the next-scheduled data to a service flow for communication over the communications link within the excess capacity; wherein the communications processing subsystem is configured to; determine that excess capacity is presently available on the communications link only during one or more predetermined off-peak time windows; and assign the next-scheduled data to a service flow for communication over the identified communications link within the excess capacity only during the one or more time windows.
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19. A gateway system for delayed content delivery in a communications infrastructure that provides sharing of at least a communications link when communicating with at least some of a plurality of subscriber terminals, the gateway system comprising:
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a content processing subsystem configured to; receive a plurality of content objects from a plurality of content sources; determine if the content object is a delayable object; and assign each content object determined to be a delayable object to a delaycast queue; and a communications processing subsystem communicatively coupled with the content processing subsystem and configured to; identify next-scheduled data from an associated content object in the delaycast queue; determine dynamically that excess capacity is presently available on the communications link; and assign the next-scheduled data to a service flow for communication over the communications link within the excess capacity; wherein multicasting the next-scheduled data over the communications link within the excess capacity to the identified set of subscriber terminals comprises directing each of the identified set of subscriber terminals to opportunistically store the next-scheduled data local to the subscriber terminal.
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Specification