METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR IDENTIFYING AND CORRECTING LOCATION DISCREPANCIES FOR RECEPTION EQUIPMENT IN A CONTENT DELIVERY NETWORK

• US 20060259984A1
• Filed: 06/05/2006
• Published: 11/16/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/15/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Maxxian Technology Inc.
• Original Assignee: Maxxian Technology Inc.
• Inventors: Juneau, J. Rene
• Granted Patent: US 8,671,457 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/28
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal

Abstract

A method and system is provided to analyse receiver indicia of location for a set of at least one receivers to determine whether a receiver has an erroneous indicator of location. The embodiment may take further steps to confirm whether or not inappropriate usage has occurred. The method and system includes identifying a first indicia of location for a set of one or more receivers, identifying a second indicia of location for one or more receivers from the set, and determining if the first and second indicia of location are mutually inconsistent. Indicia of location include indicators of receiver location, inventory state, communication path and definition on systems. The method and system may optionally include action to report or correct the location error.

Claims

1. A method for identifying location errors in a subscriber content delivery network for a set of at least one receivers, the method comprising the steps of:

a) obtaining a first indicia of location for the at least one receiver;

b) obtaining a second indicia of location for the at least one receiver;

c) determining whether said first indicia of location is inconsistent with said second indicia of location to determine whether the at least one receiver has an inconsistency in its indicia of location.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

said first indicia of location has a value associated with at least one location of a first set of at least one locations;

said second indicia of location has a value associated with at least one location of a second set of at least one locations; and

no location in said first set of locations is found in said second set of locations.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the set of at least one receivers having at least two receivers, each of said at least two receivers being intended for use in the same location;

said first indicia of location is an indicator for a first receiver of said at least two receivers having a value associated with at least one location of a first set of locations;

said second indicia of location is an indicator for a second receiver of said at least two receivers having a value associated with location of a second set of locations; and

no location in said first set of locations is found in said second set of locations.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein:

said first indicia of location is a first indicator value of location for one of said at least one receivers taken at a first time;

said second indicia of location is a second indicator value of location for said one of said at least one receivers taken at a second time; and

an inconsistency is determined if the first indicator value is different from the second indicator value.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein:

said first indicia of location is a first indicator value of inventory state for one of said at least one receivers taken at a first time;

said second indicia of location is a second indicator value of inventory state for said one of said at least one receivers taken at a second time;

the first indicator value matches the second indicator value; and

an inconsistency is determined if the time difference between said first time and said second time is greater than a predetermined time for which said one of said at least one receivers is intended to be in said inventory state.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein:

said first indicia of location is an indicator that one of said at least one receivers is defined on a first instance of a first system that stores indicia of location of receivers;

said second indicia of location is an indicator that the one of said at least one receivers is defined on a second instance of a second system of the same type as said first instance of the first system; and

an inconsistency is determined if it is known that a receiver should not be defined on more than one instance of a system of the same type.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein one of said first indicia of location and said second indicia of location is an identifier of a communication path that is associated with a set of at least one locations.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein one of said first indicia of location and said second indicia of location is an inventory state that is associated with a set of at least one locations.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein one of said first indicia of location and said second indicia of location is an indicator of signal strength that is usable as an indicator of a location on a communication path.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein one of said first indicia of location and said second indicia of location is an indicator of poll response time that is usable as an indicator of a location on a communication path.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein each of said first indicia of location and said second indicia of location are obtained from at least one of the sources of:

a conditional access system, a subscriber management system, a video-on-demand service, a pay-per-view service, an impulse pay-per-view service, an interactive television system, and a receiver software delivery system.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein said first indicia of location is an indicia of location obtained at a first time for one of said at least one receivers, and said second indicia of location is an indicia of location obtained from the same source for the one of said at least one receivers at a second time.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said second time is at least a predefined time period after said first time.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein if said first indicia of location is inconsistent with said at second indicia of location, a corrective action is executed to address the inconsistency between said first indicia of location and said second indicia of location.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein:

each said first indicia of location and said second indicia of location are retrieved from at least one record of any one or more of a conditional access system, a subscriber management system, a video-on-demand system, a pay-per-view system, an impulse pay-per-view system, and an interactive television system; and

said corrective action includes updating at least one of said at least one records to cause said first indicia of location to become consistent with said second indicia of location.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein said corrective action includes disabling at least one functional capability of one of said at least one receivers.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein said corrective action includes launching a legal action against an alleged user one of one of said at least one receivers.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein said corrective action is executed in an automated manner.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein said corrective action is executed at a time tending to minimize disruption of operation of said network.

20. The method of claim 14, wherein said corrective action includes recording into a report information identifying said at least one receiver, said first indicia of location and said second indicia of location.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein said report is utilized to take at least one further corrective action.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein said report provided to a party, other than the party that performed said recording into said report, to take the at least one further corrective action.

23. A method for detecting an unauthorized signal receiver in a subscriber content delivery network, comprising the steps of:

a) identifying a first set of receivers that are capable of receiving a subscriber signal delivered by said network;

b) identifying a second set receivers that are authorized to receive the subscriber signal delivered by said network; and

c) identifying any receiver in said first set of receivers that are not in said second set of receivers as being a potentially unauthorized signal receiver.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

d) disabling said potentially unauthorized signal receiver from receiving the subscriber signal delivered by said network.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein:

a conditional access system is in communication with each receiver of said first set of receivers;

access by said each receiver of said first set of receivers to the subscriber signal is controlled by said conditional access system, and

said disabling said potentially unauthorized signal receiver includes said conditional access system refusing further access by said potentially unauthorized signal receiver.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein said disabling said potentially unauthorized signal receiver includes at least one command being sent over said network to said potentially unauthorized signal receiver to disable at least one capability of said said potentially unauthorized signal receiver.

27. A system for identifying location errors in a subscriber content delivery network for a set of at least one receivers, the system comprising:

an information gathering module for obtaining a first indicia of location for the at least one receiver and a second indicia of location for the at least one receiver; and

a determination module for determining whether said first indicia of location is inconsistent with said second indicia of location to determine whether the at least one receiver has an inconsistency in its indicia of location.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the information gathering module and the determination module are each implemented in software on at least one computer connected to the network.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the modules accesses data from at least one of a conditional access system, a subscriber management system, a video-on-demand system in communication with said network, a pay-per-view, an impulse pay-per-view, a software delivery system for receivers, and an interactive television.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein said data from said set of at least one receivers and the indicia of location errors identified is presented to said at least one computer in a form of computer output.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein said data is provided on a read-only basis.

32. The system of claim 30, where access to said data is provided based on restricting access to subsets of the data based on at least one of user identification and user location information.

33. The system of claim 30, further comprising a data repository for storing said data.

34. The system of claim 33, therein the data repository stores multiple sets of said data that were extracted at two or more different times.