TRAFFIC HANDLING FOR MOBILE COMMUNICATION-BASED ADVERTISEMENTS

• US 20110110234A1
• Filed: 11/12/2010
• Published: 05/12/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/12/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Pulijala, Amitha, Rajasekar, Sharath, Strand, Terje
• Granted Patent: US 8,879,389 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/235
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0275 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0276 Advertisement creation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/29 using a combination of thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/10 Flow control between communication endpoints
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]

Abstract

A communications advertising system is described for delivering ad content to subscribers of a telecommunications network. The system performs traffic handling by using at least two limits for regulating message transmission. During processing, a network node of the system can continuously monitor the quantity of message traffic being processed. If the node detects that the quantity of traffic has decreased below a first limit, it can initiate the processing of reserved bulk messages. The node then continues to transmit the bulk traffic while still measuring the quantity of message traffic being processed. If, thereafter, the node detects that the quantity of overall message traffic being processed has exceeded a second limit, the processing of bulk messages is halted until the quantity of regular traffic decreases below the first limit once again, at which point the node can resume processing the bulk message traffic.

Claims

1. A method for traffic handling of mobile communications advertisements, said method comprising:

measuring a quantity of message traffic being processed by a network node over a period of time;

detecting that the quantity of said message traffic being processed by the network node has decreased below a first predefined limit;

initiating the processing of a set of reserved bulk messages by said network node and continuing to process said reserved bulk messages while measuring the quantity of message traffic being processed by the network node;

detecting that the quantity of said message traffic being processed by said network node has exceeded a second predefined limit; and

halting the processing of the reserved bulk messages by said network node.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting that the quantity of said message traffic being processed by the node has again decreased below the first predefined limit; and

resuming the processing of the reserved bulk messages by said node.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the message traffic being processed by the node includes short messaging service (SMS), multimedia messaging service (MMS) traffic and WAP Push traffic wherein the reserved bulk messages include mobile advertisements.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein processing capacity of the node between the first predefined limit and the second predefined limit is a buffer for the reserved bulk messaging traffic containing mobile advertisements.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting that the quantity of traffic being processed by the node has exceeded a maximum budget for processing message traffic by said node; and

generating an error message by said node.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of reserved bulk messages are stored in a queue, wherein during processing, the reserved bulk messages are retrieved by the network node from the queue and transmitted to designated recipient of each bulk message.

7. The method of claim 1, whereby the first limit and the second limit enable the reserved bulk messages to be processed by the network node while simultaneously preventing the bulk messaging traffic from interfering with the processing of the regular message traffic being processed by the network node.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein each step of said method is distributed and coordinated across a plurality of network nodes connected in a cluster network.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

scheduling an advertisement campaign containing the set of reserved bulk messages, wherein upon activating the advertisement campaign, the network node begins to process the set of reserved bulk messages if the amount of traffic is below the first limit.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the set of reserved bulk messages is customized according to subscriber profile data of each recipient.

11. A system for traffic handling of mobile communications advertisements, said system comprising:

one or more devices connected as network nodes of a cluster network, each network node performing the steps of;

measuring a quantity of message traffic being processed by the network node over a period of time;

detecting that the quantity of said message traffic being processed by the network node has decreased below a first predefined limit;

initiating the processing of a set of reserved bulk messages by said network node and continuing to process said reserved bulk messages while measuring the quantity of message traffic being processed by the network node;

detecting that the quantity of said message traffic being processed by said network node has exceeded a second predefined limit; and

halting the processing of the reserved bulk messages by said network node.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein each of the network nodes further perform the steps of:

detecting that the quantity of said message traffic being processed by the node has again decreased below the first predefined limit; and

resuming the processing of the reserved bulk messages by said node.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the message traffic being processed by the node includes short messaging service (SMS), multimedia messaging service (MMS) traffic and WAP Push traffic, and wherein the reserved bulk messages include mobile advertisements.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein processing capacity of the node between the first predefined limit and the second predefined limit is a buffer for the reserved bulk messaging traffic containing mobile advertisements.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein each of the network nodes further perform the steps of:

detecting that the quantity of traffic being processed by the node has exceeded a maximum budget for processing message traffic by said node; and

generating an error message by said node.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the set of reserved bulk messages are stored in a queue, wherein during processing, the reserved bulk messages are retrieved by the network node from the queue and transmitted to designated recipient of each bulk message.

17. The system of claim 11, whereby the first limit and the second limit enable the reserved bulk messages to be processed by the network node while simultaneously preventing the bulk messaging traffic from interfering with the processing of the regular message traffic being processed by the network node.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein at least one of the network nodes further perform the step of:

scheduling an advertisement campaign containing the set of reserved bulk messages, wherein upon activating the advertisement campaign, the network node begins to process the set of reserved bulk messages if the amount of traffic is below the first limit.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein each of the set of reserved bulk messages is customized according to subscriber profile data of each recipient.

20. A computer-readable storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions, said instructions, when executed by one or more processors, causing the one or more processors to carry out the steps of:

measuring a quantity of message traffic being processed by a network node over a period of time;

detecting that the quantity of said message traffic being processed by the network node has decreased below a first predefined limit;

initiating the processing of a set of reserved bulk messages by said network node and continuing to process said reserved bulk messages while measuring the quantity of message traffic being processed by the network node;

detecting that the quantity of said message traffic being processed by said network node has exceeded a second predefined limit; and

halting the processing of the reserved bulk messages by said network node.