APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR FILE SIZE ESTIMATION OVER BROADCAST NETWORKS

• US 20100278178A1
• Filed: 12/18/2007
• Published: 11/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: InterDigital CE Patent Holdings SAS (InterDigital, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Thomson Licensing (Vantiva SA)
• Inventors: Anthru, Shemimom M., Boyce, Jill MacDonald, Campana, David Anthony, Sridhar, Avinash
• Granted Patent: US 9,369,771 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/390
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/40 Arrangements for broadcast specially adapted for accumulation-type receivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/42 Arrangements for resource management
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/57 for mobile receivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 40/27 specially adapted for broadcast systems covered by groups H04H20/53 - H04H20/95
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/27 Arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/72 using electronic programme guides [EPG] focusing on identifying broadcast space time H04H60/39 ; menu type display of EPG in television receivers H04N21/47
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• 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 21/4334 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 21/4345 Extraction or processing of SI, e.g. extracting service information from an MPEG stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44209 Monitoring of downstream path of the transmission network originating from a server, e.g. bandwidth variations of a wireless network arrangements for maintenance or administration in data switching networks involving bandwidth and capacity management H04L41/0896
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6131 involving transmission via a mobile phone network wireless downlink channel access H04W74/006

Abstract

The apparatus and method for estimating the size of content being received before the actual transmission of the data utilizes Electronic Service Guide (ESG) information. The ESG information assists a client device in obtaining file information before the file is actually transmitted by the source of the same. In this manner, the power supply of the user device can be managed more efficiently and provide the user with the ability to make storage determinations at their user device before expending the power resources necessary to obtain (i.e., download) and store a particular file of interest to the user without requiring any user intervention.

Claims

1. A method for file size estimation comprising the step of estimating a size of a file using schedule information before receiving said file.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of determining whether to receive the file in response to said file size estimation.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of determining a bandwidth of a communication channel.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said estimating further comprises deriving start and end times of the file from the schedule.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising determining storage space limitations on the client device using the estimated file size.

6. The method of claim 2, further comprising determining whether to store the file in response to said file size estimation.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein said determining the bandwidth is performed by estimating the bandwidth of the communication channel.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein said determining the bandwidth is performed by obtaining previously known values for the bandwidth of the communication channel.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein said estimating further comprises monitoring an amount of packets received over the communication channel for a period of time.

10. The method of claim 2, wherein said determining is performed in accordance with a user profile stored on the client device.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein said estimating further comprises utilizing electronic service guide (ESG) information relating to the file.

12. An apparatus comprising:

a mobile client device (400) having a memory (402), said mobile client device operative to estimate a file size using scheduled information before receiving said file.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, said mobile client device further operative to determine whether to receive the file in response to said file size estimation.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the mobile client device is further operative to determine the bandwidth of a communication channel over which the file is to be transmitted to the mobile device.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, further comprising a user profile stored in the memory of the client device, the user profile enabling the mobile client device to make the determination to receive said file.

17. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein said program product further comprises:

program code for determining a bandwidth of a communication channel over which the file is to be transmitted to the mobile client device.

18. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein said program product further comprises:

program code for determining storage space limitations on the client device using the estimated file size.

19. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein said program code for determining a bandwidth of the communication channel further comprises program code for estimating the bandwidth of the communication channel

20. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein said program code for estimating the bandwidth further comprises program code for monitoring an amount of packets received over the communication channel for a period of time.

16. An apparatus comprising:

a mobile client device having a memory contained therein, the memory having a computer program product comprising readable program code embodied thereon for use in operating the mobile client device, the program product comprising;

program code for estimating a file size using broadcast schedule information before receiving the file; and

program code for determining whether to receive the file in response to said file size estimation.