Peer-to-peer video on demand techniques

• US 20070250880A1
• Filed: 04/05/2006
• Published: 10/25/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/05/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Sbc Knowledge Ventures, L.P.
• Inventors: Hainline, William
• Granted Patent: US 8,707,375 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/97
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23113 involving housekeeping operations for stored content, e.g. prioritizing content for deletion because of storage space restrictions storage management, e.g. defragmentation G06F3/0604; snloading stored programs G06F9/445; housekeeping operations in file systems, e.g. deletion policies G06F16/10; buffering arrangements in a network node or in an end terminal in packet networks H04L49/90
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2393 involving handling client requests scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60
• 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 21/44245 Monitoring the upstream path of the transmission network, e.g. its availability, bandwidth
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/632 using a connection between clients on a wide area network, e.g. setting up a peer-to-peer communication via Internet for retrieving video segments from the hard-disk of other client devices broadcast-related systems characterised by transmission among terminal devices H04H60/80; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

Techniques for delivering video on demand (VOD) content via peer-to-peer (P2P) techniques are provided. A VOD distribution service maintains associations of viewers that have specific VOD content. As new viewers, which lack the specific VOD content, make requests for the specific VOD content from the VOD distribution service, the VOD distribution service identifies a P2P viewer from which the specific VOD content may be acquired via a P2P transaction.

Claims

1. A method including:

receiving a request for video on demand (VOD) content from a requestor;

identifying a location of the requestor;

searching an index for other viewers having the VOD content within a proximity of the location of the requestor; and

instructing the requestor to obtain the VOD content from one or more of the other viewers.

2. The method of claim 1 further including, recording a billing event for the requestor when one of the one or more other viewers reports that the VOD content was obtained by the requestor.

3. The method of claim 1 further including, facilitating a peer-to-peer connection between the requestor and one of the one or more other viewers for purposes of delivering the VOD content to the requestor.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying further includes determining the location in response to at least one of an internet protocol (IP) address associated with the requestor and a billing address associated with an account of the requestor.

5. The method of claim 1 further including, pushing the VOD content to set-top-boxes of the one or more other viewers in advance of receiving the request.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein pushing further includes encrypting the VOD content, wherein access to play the VOD content is enabled with a proper license key.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein instructing further includes distributing a proper license key to the requestor and wherein at least one of the one or more other viewers lack the proper license key to play the VOD content.

8. A method including:

generating an index that identifies video on demand content (VOD) and viewers that actively have specific VOD content on set-top boxes (STB'"'"'s) of the viewers; and

managing the index to supply identifiers of one or more of the STB'"'"'s to requesters of the specific VOD content for purposes of facilitating a peer-to-peer (P2P) of the specific VOD content from the one or more STB'"'"'s directly to the requesters, and wherein the index further includes geographic locations for each of the STB'"'"'s.

9. The method of claim 8 further including, tracking events received from the one or more STB'"'"'s indicating that requesters have successfully acquired the specific VOD content via a P2P connection.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein generating further includes retaining geographic profile information for each of the STB'"'"'s within the index.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein managing further includes selecting the identities of the one or more STB'"'"'s in response to geographic locations of the requestors vis-à

-vis the geographical profile information.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein managing further includes distributing licensing keys to the requesters, wherein the licensing keys may be used to play the specific VOD content once acquired via a P3P connection with one of the one or more STB'"'"'s.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein managing further includes instructing a number of the STB'"'"'s to remove the specific VOD content in response to policy.

14. A machine accessible medium having instructions embedded thereon, the instructions when accessed by a machine perform the method of:

receiving a request for video on demand (VOD) content from a requester, wherein the request originated in response to a geographic proximity value associated with the requestor;

establishing a peer-to-peer (P2P) connection with the requestor;

delivering the VOD content to the requestor over the P2P connection; and

sending a notification to a VOD content server once the VOD content is delivered to the requestor over the P2P connection.

15. The medium of claim 14 further including instructions for removing the VOD content in response to instructions received from the VOD content server.

16. The medium of claim 14 further including instructions for ensuring that the requestor presents a key for acquiring the VOD content, wherein the requestor acquired the key from the VOD content server in advance of the P2P connection.

17. The medium of claim 14, wherein sending further includes identifying the requestor and a date and time that the VOD content was delivered to the requestor over the P2P connection within the notification.

18. The medium of claim 14, wherein delivering further includes streaming the VOD content to the requestor during the P2P connection.

19. The medium of claim 14 further including, requesting confirmation from the VOD content server before delivering the VOD content to the requestor over the P2P connection.

20. A system including:

memory having a repository with video on demand (VOD) content; and

a VOD distribution service element, wherein the VOD distribution service element is to initially distribute the VOD content to one or more set-top-boxes (STB'"'"'s) associated with subscribers, and wherein the VOD distribution service element manages identities of the one or more STB'"'"'s and is to selectively distribute those identities in response to subsequent requests from other subscribers for the VOD content, wherein the other subscribers subsequently acquire the VOD content via P2P connections with the STB'"'"'s.

21. The system of claim 20 further including, a VOD index that is to be maintained by the VOD distribution service element and that is to include geographic profile information for each of the STB'"'"'s and for the other subscribers that subsequently request the VOD content.

22. The system of claim 20, wherein the VOD distribution service element is to enforce a retention policy for the VOD content with each of the STB'"'"'s and in response to the retention policy is to instruct selective ones of the STB'"'"'s to remove the VOD content.

23. The system of claim 20, wherein the VOD distribution service element is to initially distribute the VOD content in an encrypted format and wherein the encrypted format is to be decrypted with a license key to play the VOD content.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein a number of the STB'"'"'s lack the license key.

25. The system of claim 23, wherein the VOD distribution service element is to distribute the license key to the other subscribers in response to the requests for the VOD content.