DYNAMICALLY REGULATING CONTENT DOWNLOADS

• US 20090024993A1
• Filed: 07/20/2007
• Published: 01/22/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/20/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Gouge, Christopher S., Reus, Edward F., Shih, Steve P.
• Granted Patent: US 8,201,164 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/177
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment

Abstract

A regulation service can deliver software packages to client computer systems while minimizing the overall effect on network (internet or LAN) traffic and/or server loads. In one implementation, the regulation service assigns acceptance rates to different software packages based on any number of different factors. Upon request for a software package, the regulation service can provide the acceptance rate and a refresh rate that differs for each software package. A client computer system can then calculate an access value, and if the access value is within an acceptance rate, the client computer system can access (e.g., download) a corresponding software package. If the access value is outside of the acceptance rate, the client computer system can refresh its requests until it identifies that the acceptance rate has changed, and the calculated value is within the new acceptance rate. Additional implementations include delivering bandwidth management policies to client computer systems.

Claims

1. At a regulation service in a computerized environment, the regulation service being configured to distribute software content in the form of one or more software packages to one or more client computer systems, a method of the regulation service managing distribution of the software content so that network traffic is minimized, comprising the acts of:

identifying one or more software packages to be delivered to one or more computer systems over a network, wherein the one or more software packages are separated into priority levels;

identifying at least an acceptance rate for each of the one or more software packages;

receiving one or more requests from one or more computer systems for any of the one or more software packages; and

sending to each of the one or more computer systems one or more responses that include the identified acceptance rate for each of the requested software packages.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more responses include instructions for a client computer system to generate one or more access values for comparison with the identified acceptance rate for each of the requested software packages.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the acceptance rate and a refresh rate are determine separately for software packages in each priority level.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising an act of revising at least one of the acceptance rate and a refresh rate in response to any one or more of receiving input from a server administrator, or identifying lapse of a time duration.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising an act of revising at least one of the acceptance rate and a refresh rate in response to any one or more of identifying one or more client computer system properties, or identifying one or more network traffic properties.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising an act of receiving one or more additional requests from the client computer system to access at least one of the one or more software packages, the one or more additional requests including an access value generated by the client computer system for the at least one software package.

7. The method as recited in claim 6, further comprising the acts of:

identifying that the access value in the one or more additional requests is outside of an acceptance rate corresponding to the at least one software package; and

returning to the client computer system at least one of a new acceptance rate and a new refresh rate for the at least one software package.

8. The method as recited in claim 7, further comprising an act of receiving one or more subsequent requests from the client computer system to access the at least one software package, the one or more subsequent requests the access value generated for the at least one software package.

9. The method as recited in claim 8, further comprising the acts of:

identifying that the access value in the one or more subsequent requests is within the acceptance rate corresponding to the at least one software package; and

providing the at least one software package to the client computer system.

10. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein:

the acceptance rate has not changed prior to the additional and subsequent requests; and

the access value is a revised access value generated anew by the client computer system before the subsequent request.

11. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein:

the acceptance rate has been revised for at least one software package prior to the subsequent request; and

the access value, which has not changed before the subsequent request, fits within the revised acceptance rate.

12. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein a local network server comprises a different regulation service that receives the one or more software packages from the regulation service, which is external to the local network server, the method further comprising:

receiving the one or more software packages from the external regulation service;

determining, via the different regulation service at the local network server at least the identified acceptance rate for each of the one or more software packages for each computer system on the local network; and

sending to each computer system on the local network one or more messages that include the determined acceptance rate.

13. The method as recited in claim 12, further comprising sending, via the different regulation service on the local network server, to each computer system on the local network, a bandwidth policy along with the determined acceptance rate in the one or more messages.

14. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein the bandwidth policy identifies how much bandwidth each of the one or more computer systems can use when accessing the one or more software packages from the local network server.

15. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein the bandwidth policy identifies that at least one of the one or more software packages are to be accessed from the local network server, and that at least another of the one or more software packages to be accessed directly from the external regulation service.

16. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising the acts of:

identifying that a plurality of client computer systems are connected over the network through the same internet gateway device; and

sending one or more messages that include a bandwidth restriction along with the acceptance rate to the internet gateway device, such that the plurality of client computer systems limit future access of the one or more software packages within constraints of the bandwidth restriction and the acceptance rate.

17. At a client computer system in a computerized environment that includes one or more regulation services configured to deliver software content in the form of one or more software packages to one or more client computer systems, a method of the client computer system accessing the software content in accordance with instructions received from the regulation service so that network bandwidth is managed effectively, comprising the acts of:

sending a request to one or more servers to access one or more software packages hosted by any of the one or more servers;

receiving one or more responses that include at least an acceptance rate associated with each of the requested one or more software packages;

calculating an access value for each of the one or more software packages;

sending one or more new requests to the any of the one or more servers to access each of the one or more software packages for which the calculated access value is within the acceptance rate for the corresponding software package.

18. The method as recited in claim 17, further comprising the acts of:

accessing those particular one or more software packages for which the corresponding calculated access value is within the acceptance rate associated with the particular software package;

sending one or more additional requests to access one or more other software packages for which the calculated access value is outside the acceptance rate for the corresponding software package; and

receiving at least one of a new acceptance rate and a new refresh rate for each of the other software packages.

19. The method as recited in claim 17, further comprising the acts of:

identifying that a refresh interval corresponding to the received refresh rate has passed before sending the one or more new requests;

identifying that a corresponding different refresh interval has passed before sending one or more different requests to access any remaining software packages; and

upon being provided with access to at least one software package, downloading the at least one software package in accordance with one or more bandwidth policies received from the regulation service.

20. At a regulation service in a computerized environment, the regulation service being configured to distribute software content in the form of one or more software packages to one or more client computer systems, a computer program product having computer executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed, cause one or more processors at the regulation service to perform a method comprising:

identifying one or more software packages to be delivered to one or more computer systems over a network, wherein the one or more software packages are separated into priority levels;

identifying at least an acceptance rate for each of the one or more software packages;

receiving one or more requests from one or more computer systems for any of the one or more software packages; and

sending to each of the one or more computer systems one or more responses that include the identified acceptance rate for each of the requested software packages.