COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT SERVER, COMMUNICATION TERMINAL, CONTENT TRANSMISSION SYSTEM, AND CONTENT TRANSMISSION METHOD

• US 20080113668A1
• Filed: 11/08/2007
• Published: 05/15/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Original Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Inventors: Oono, Tomoyoshi, YABE, Toshiyasu
• Granted Patent: US 8,050,676 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/435.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1012 to domains
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1015 to users
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1086 Superdistribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1073 Registration or de-registration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1063 Discovery through centralising entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1091 Interfacing with client-server systems or between P2P systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/254 Management at additional data server, e.g. shopping server, rights management server arrangements for maintenance or administration in data networks H04L41/00; network services using third party service providers H04L67/53
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25816 involving client authentication restricting access to computer systems by authenticating users using a predetermined code G06F21/33; cryptographic authentication protocols H04L9/32; networks authentication protocols H04L63/08; authentication in wireless network security H04W12/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41407 embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57
• 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: H04W 4/08 User group management

Abstract

Direct content redistribution between users belonging to the same community is enabled. A portable telephone set issues a request to a community management server to register portable telephone sets belonging to a community, in association with the community, and the community management server performs community registration. The portable telephone sets issue requests to the community management server for permission to redistribute content which has been distributed from a CP server, and when the redistribution permission request is for registered portable telephone sets belonging to the same community, the community management server grants permission for the redistribution. By this means, content redistribution can be performed directly between users belonging to the same community, without the intervention of the CP server.

Claims

1. A community management server, comprising:

registration unit for registering a plurality of communication terminals belonging to the same community among a plurality of communication terminals, in association with the community;

reception unit for receiving, from any of the communication terminals, a request for redistribution of content from one communication terminal, to which the content has been distributed from a transmission server, to another communication terminal;

confirmation unit for confirming whether the redistribution request received by the reception unit is for redistribution between communication terminals belonging to the same community registered by the registration unit; and

notification unit for notifying the one communication terminal that redistribution of the content is to be performed from the one communication terminal to the other communication terminal when the confirmation unit has confirmed that the redistribution request is for redistribution between communication terminals belonging to the same community.

2. The community management server according to claim 1, wherein the reception unit receives, from any of the communication terminals, a request for registration of the plurality of communication terminals belonging to the same community, in association with the community,

and the registration unit, in response to the registration request received by the reception unit, registers the plurality of communication terminals belonging to the same community in association with the community.

3. A communication terminal, comprising:

redistribution request unit for transmitting, to the community management server according to claim 1, a request for redistribution of content from one communication terminal, which has received distribution of the content from the transmission server, to another communication terminal.

4. A communication terminal, which is one communication terminal that has received content distribution from sand transmission server, comprising:

redistribution notification reception unit for receiving, from the community management server according to claim 1, notification that redistribution of the content from the one communication terminal to another communication terminal is to be performed; and

redistribution content transmission unit for transmitting the content to the other communication terminal, when the redistribution notification reception unit has received notification of the performance of redistribution of the content.

5. A content transmission system, wherein a transmission server, the community management server according to claim 1, and a plurality of communication terminals comprising the communication terminal according to claim 3 or claim 4, are interconnected in a communication network, and content is distributed from the transmission server to the communication terminals via the communication network.

6. A content transmission method, in a system in which a transmission server, a plurality of communication terminals, and a community management server are interconnected in a communication network, and content is distributed from the transmission server to the communication terminals via the communication network, the content transmission method comprising:

a registration step in which the community management server registers the plurality of communication terminals belonging to the same community in association with the community;

a redistribution requesting step in which any of the communication terminals transmits, to the community management server, a request for redistribution of content from one communication terminal, which has received distribution of the content from the transmission server, to another communication terminal;

a confirmation step in which the community management server confirms whether the redistribution request transmitted in the redistribution requesting step is for redistribution between communication terminals belonging to the same community registered in the registration step; and

a notification step in which, when the redistribution request is confirmed to be redistribution between communication terminals belonging to the same community in the confirmation step, the community management server notifies the one terminal of the performance of redistribution of the content from the one communication terminal to the other communication terminal.