System and method for utilizing a secured service provider memory

• US 10,277,947 B2
• Filed: 02/29/2016
• Issued: 04/30/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CenturyLink Intellectual Property LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: CenturyLink Intellectual Property LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Smoyer, Clinton J., Cook, Andrew V., Kerr, Jade D., Morrissey, Michael P., McBride, Kevin M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chokshi, Pinkal R
• Application Number:
  US15/056,413
• Publication Number:
  US 20160182953A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,156 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2402 Monitoring of the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. bandwidth available traffic monitoring in data switching networks H04L43/00; monitoring data switching networks utilization H04L43/0876
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25891 being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26275 for distributing content or additional data in a staggered manner, e.g. repeating movies on different channels in a time-staggered manner in a near video on demand system
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2668 Creating a channel for a dedicated end-user group, e.g. insertion of targeted commercials based on end-user profiles information retrieval from the Internet by querying with filtering and personalisation G06F16/9535; arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast H04H20/10; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; adaptation of message content in packet-switching networks H04L51/063
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4147 PVR [Personal Video Recorder] H04N5/76 takes precedence ; arrangements for broadcast with accumulation-type receivers H04H20/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4334 Recording operations recording of a television signal H04N5/76; arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4335 Housekeeping operations, e.g. prioritizing content for deletion because of storage space restrictions storage management, e.g. defragmentation G06F3/0604; unloading stored programs G06F9/445; storage management in file systems G06F16/10; buffering arrangements in a network node or in an end terminal in packet networks H04L49/90
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/437 Interfacing the upstream path of the transmission network, e.g. for transmitting client requests to a VOD server flow control in data networks H04L47/10; streaming protocols, e.g. RTP or RTCP, H04L65/65; scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests in data packet switching networks H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44222 Analytics of user selections, e.g. selection of programs or purchase activity monitoring of user selections in data processing systems G06F11/34; arrangements for monitoring the user's behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4667 Processing of monitored end-user data, e.g. trend analysis based on the log file of viewer selections
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6405 Multicasting data broadcast and multicast in packet switching networks H04L12/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64322 IP
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6543 for forcing some client operations, e.g. recording remote booting in general G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A system and method for utilizing a secured service provider memory are disclosed. An electronic device is associated with a subscriber and is in communication with a data distribution network configured to deliver data by a service provider to the subscriber. The data distribution network comprises a server in communication with the data distribution network and the server configured to deliver a stream of data over the data distribution network. The electronic device comprises a first memory communicatively connected to the server. The first memory is configured to receive and store data from the server and it is accessible by the subscriber. A second memory is also communicatively connected to the server. The second memory is configured to receive and store data from the server, though the second memory is accessible only by the service provider.

Claims

1. A method of delivering video content over a network in communication with a plurality of subscribers, the method comprising the steps of:

providing a respective electronic device associated with each of the plurality of subscribers, each respective electronic device having a first memory and a second memory, the respective electronic device configured to deny the plurality of subscribers access to the second memory;

providing a network server and a database, the database storing data associated with the viewing habits of the subscribers;

receiving a request from a first subscriber for the video content at the network server;

based on the request received from the first subscriber, querying the database to determine subscribers other than the first subscriber likely interested in the video content, the querying step resulting in the identification of a subset of the plurality of subscribers other than the first subscriber likely interested in the video content;

delivering the video content to both a first electronic device associated with the first subscriber to stream and second electronic devices associated with the subset of the plurality of subscribers for storage;

storing the video content on the second memory of the second electronic devices associated with the subset of the plurality of subscribers, the second memory being accessible by a service provider via a virtual local area network (“

VLAN”

) to configure, push files, delete files, or make changes to the second memory; and

responsive to a request to view the video content from a respective one of the second electronic devices, granting, via the respective one of the second electronic device, access to the video content for immediate viewing of the video content on the second memory of the respective one of the second electronic devices.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the subset of the subscribers is determined based on information related to the video content, the information including at least one of a title, genre, rating, release date, cast, director, and producer of the video content.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of verifying the available bandwidth capacity of the communication lines associated with the subset of the plurality of subscribers.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of notifying the subset of the plurality of subscribers that the video content is ready for immediate viewing.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic device is a set top box.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining whether to push the video content to each subscriber of the subset of subscribers, based on the viewing habits of each subscriber of the subset of subscribers;

determining parameters for pushing the video content to the second memory of each second electronic device, wherein the parameters include an amount of memory on the second memory required to store the video content; and

pushing the video content to the second memory of each second electronic device for each subscriber of the subset of subscribers in response to determining that the video content should be pushed to each subscriber of the subset of subscribers and that the parameters can be satisfied.