Method and apparatus for distributing services and data

• US 10,397,822 B2
• Filed: 04/17/2018
• Issued: 08/27/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Beattie, James G., Kandasamy, Veeramani
• Primary Examiner(s): Doan, Phuoc H
• Application Number:
  US15/954,698
• Publication Number:
  US 20180234874A1
• Time in Patent Office: 497 Days
• Field of Search: 370329, 455411, 4554141, 4554561, 4554563, 4555521, 3405721, 380258
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0226 based on location or mobility handoff or reselection H04W36/00; mobile application services making use of the location of users or terminals H04W4/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0231 based on communication conditions dynamic wireless traffic scheduling definition based on channel quality criteria H04W72/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/024 Guidance services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/026 using orientation information, e.g. compass
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/14 Direct-mode setup

Abstract

Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, determining a need to provide a service to a first communication device of a plurality of communication devices, detecting a movement of a second communication device of the plurality of communication devices in a direction that will place the second communication device in a communication range of the first communication device, and transmitting a message to the second communication device to provide the service to the first communication device when the second communication device comes into the communication range of the first communication device. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a processing system including a processor; and

a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processing system, facilitate performance of operations, comprising;

determining a first location of a first communication device and a first trajectory of the first communication device responsive to receiving a request for content from the first communication device;

predicting whether a second communication device capable of providing the content to the first communication device will come into a peer-to-peer communication range of the first communication device based on the first location and the first trajectory and based on a second location and a second trajectory of the second communication device;

receiving communication metric information according to testing of peer-to-peer communications between the second communication device and the first communication device;

determining, according to the communication metric information, whether to distribute the content to the first communication device via the second communication device; and

transmitting the content to the second communication device for distribution to the first communication device responsive to the determining to distribute the content to the first communication device via the second communication device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the transmitting the content to the second communication device is based in part on a determination that a traffic level of a network node communicatively coupled to the first communication device exceeds a threshold.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise transmitting content directly to the first communication device responsive to the second communication device not coming into the peer-to-peer communication range of the first communication device.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the transmitting the content to the second communication device is based in part on a determination that a communication efficiency of a network node communicatively coupled to the first communication device is below a threshold.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the communication metric information includes bit error rate, latency, jitter, radio frequency noise, signal-to-noise ratio, or any combination thereof.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise sending a message to the second communication device to prepare the second communication device for receiving the content responsive to the predicting.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the predicting further comprises determining a time of arrival based on the first location, the second location, and the second trajectory of the second communication device to predict whether the first communication device and the second communication device will be in the peer-to-peer communication range of each other.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the transmitting is performed responsive to receiving a request to receive content from the first communication device.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the second trajectory of the second communication device is based on location information received from the second communication device.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the second trajectory of the second communication device is based on triangulation information provided by infrastructure communicatively coupled to the second communication device.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the trajectory of the second communication device is based on location data comprising geographic data and orientation data.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the geographic data is supplied by a coordinate sensor of the second communication device, and wherein the orientation data is supplied by an orientation sensor of the second communication device.

13. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a processing system comprising a processor, a request for content from a first communication device;

determining, by the processing system, a first location of the first communication device, a trajectory of a second communication device, and a second location of the second communication device responsive to receiving the request;

predicting, by the processing system, whether a second communication device capable of providing the content to the first communication device will come into a peer-to-peer communication range of the first communication device based on the determining;

receiving, by the processing system, communication metric information according to testing of peer-to-peer communications between the second communication device and the first communication device;

determining, by the processing system, according to the communication metric information, whether to distribute the content to the first communication device via the second communication device; and

transmitting, by the processing system, the content to the second communication device for distribution to the first communication device responsive to the determining to distribute the content to the first communication device via the second communication device.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the method further comprises sending an instruction to the second communication device to prepare the second communication device to receive the content responsive to the predicting.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the content further comprises one of voice communication services, data communication services, or both.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the trajectory of the second communication device is based on triangulation information provided by infrastructure communicatively coupled to the second communication device.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the second communication device initiates a local area network to deliver the content to the second communication device, wherein the content comprises media content.

18. A non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium, comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processing system including a processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising:

providing a request for content to a network, wherein the network determines a first location of the processing system and a first trajectory of the processing system responsive to receiving the request, wherein the network provides the content to a communication device identified by the network as capable of providing the content to the processing system and predicted to come into a peer-to-peer communication range of the processing system based on the first location and the first trajectory and based on a second location and a second trajectory of the communication device;

facilitating peer-to-peer communications with the communication device identified by the network, wherein the communication device tests the peer-to-peer communications to determine communication metric information; and

receiving the content from the communication device according to the communication metric information.

19. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the network determines a first trajectory of the processing system based on the first location.

20. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the first trajectory is compared to the second trajectory to determine an expected time of arrival for the processing system to be within the peer-to-peer communication range of the communication device.