CONTENTS DISTRIBUTION APPARATUS

• US 20020118835A1
• Filed: 08/31/2001
• Published: 08/29/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Uemura, Tetsuya
• Granted Patent: US 7,171,687 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 380/231
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23106 involving caching operations prefetching while addressing of a memory level in which the access to the desired data or data block requires associative addressing means within memory systems or architectures G06F12/0862; caching at an intermediate stage in a data network H04L67/568
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2347 involving video stream encryption
• 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 21/26216 involving the channel capacity, e.g. network bandwidth admission control, resource allocation in open networks H04L12/5692; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10; establishing a schedule or organising the servicing of application requests taking into account QoS H04L67/61
• 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 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/1675 Providing digital key or authorisation information for generation or regeneration of the scrambling sequence pseudo-random number generators in general G06F7/58
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

To acquire contents prior to a distribution request from a client in a time zone having sufficient network bandwidth, and efficiently use network bandwidth. An access trends analysis handler analyzes access to contents by a client, a contents prediction handler predicts contents expected to be in demand in the future based on this analysis result, and a contents acquisition handler acquires the forecast contents in a time zone when there is sufficient network bandwidth. A contents deletion handler predicts contents in the acquired contents for which not much demand is expected from the client contents access trends, and deletes these contents. Due to this invention, a contents distribution apparatus can be provided which enables efficient use of network bandwidth and disk capacity.

Claims

1. A contents distribution apparatus for distributing contents to a client, comprising:

an apparatus for collecting the contents access situation information from a client; and

means for analyzing the contents access trends based on the collected access situation information.

2. The contents distribution apparatus as defined in claim 1, further comprising means for predicting contents expected to be in demand in the future, based on the analyzed access trends.

3. The contents distribution apparatus as defined in claim 2, comprising an apparatus for acquiring contents predicted to be in demand in the future.

4. The contents distribution apparatus as defined in any one of claims 2 or 3, further comprising an apparatus for receiving contents meta-information, i.e., additional information required to classify the contents, wherein the means for predicting the contents predicts the contents expected to be in demand in the future, based on the access trends and the meta-information.

10. The contents distribution apparatus defined in claim 1, wherein both a first contents distribution apparatus and a second contents distribution apparatus are the contents distribution apparatus,

wherein:

the first contents distribution apparatus transmits first contents acquired from a neighboring server to the second contents distribution apparatus, and

the second contents distribution apparatus transmits second contents acquired from a neighboring server to the first contents distribution apparatus.

11. The contents distribution apparatus as defined in claim 1, further comprising an apparatus for determining a deletion timing of the contents acquired using the contents access situation information.

5. An apparatus for distributing contents to a client, comprising:

an apparatus for collecting contents access situation information from the client;

an apparatus for analyzing contents access trends based on the contents access situation information;

an apparatus for transmitting the contents access trends to a server which predicts contents expected to be in demand in the future based on the contents access trends and transmits the contents; and

an apparatus for receiving the contents expected to be in demand in the future from the server.

6. An apparatus for distributing contents to a client, comprising:

an apparatus for collecting contents access situation information from the client;

an apparatus for transmitting the contents access situation information to a server which analyzes contents access trends based on the contents access situation information, predicts contents expected to be in demand in the future based on the contents access trends and transmits a list of the contents predicted;

an apparatus for receiving the list of the contents from the server; and

an apparatus for acquiring the contents based on the list of contents.

7. An apparatus for distributing contents to a client, comprising:

an apparatus for collecting contents access situation information from the client;

an apparatus for transmitting the contents access situation information to a server which analyzes contents access trends based on the contents access situation information, predicting contents expected to be in demand in the future and transmits the contents predicted; and

an apparatus for receiving the contents expected to be in demand in the future from the server.

8. An apparatus for distributing contents to a client, comprising:

a database for recording information for distinguishing a client and recording permission information concerning distribution of contents to the client;

a database access apparatus;

an authentication apparatus for authenticating the client and acquiring the information for distinguishing the client;

an apparatus for receiving the permission information concerning distribution of contents to the client from a server which manages distribution permission information;

an apparatus for requesting acquisition of permission to distribute the contents from the server to the client; and

an apparatus for distributing the contents to the client,

wherein;

the client distinguishing information is acquired by the authentication apparatus when contents distribution request is received from the client,

the distribution permission information of the contents is checked for the client distinguishing information by the database access apparatus,

the contents are distributed to the client by the contents distribution apparatus when the distribution is permitted,

a request is made to acquire permission to distribute the contents from the server to the client by the apparatus for requesting acquisition of permission when the distribution is not permitted, and

the permission information concerning distribution of contents to the client is written by the database access apparatus onto the database for recording permission information, and the contents are distributed to the client by the contents distribution apparatus, when the apparatus for receiving the permission information receives permission to distribute the contents to the client from the server.

9. The apparatus as defined in claim 8, wherein:

the contents are encrypted and an entry which registers the decryption key of the contents exists in the database, and the server manages the decryption key, the apparatus further comprises;

an apparatus for requesting the decryption key from the server;

an apparatus for receiving the decryption key from the server; and

an apparatus for distributing the decryption key to the client,

wherein;

when distribution of the contents to the client is permitted and the decryption key is registered in the database, the decryption key is distributed to the client by the apparatus for distributing the decryption key,

when distribution of the contents to the client is permitted and the decryption key is not registered in the database, the decryption key is requested from the server by the apparatus for requesting the decryption key, received by the apparatus for receiving the decryption key, registered in the database by the database access apparatus, and distributed to the client by the apparatus for distributing the decryption key, and

when distribution of the contents to the client is not permitted, the apparatus for receiving the permission information receives the distribution permission, and the database access apparatus writes the permission information onto the permission information concerning the distribution of the contents in the database,

the decryption key is requested from the server by the apparatus for requesting the decryption key, received from the server by the apparatus for receiving the decryption key, registered in the database by the database access apparatus, and distributed to the client by the apparatus for distributing the decryption key.