SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DELIVERING MESSAGES OVER A NETWORK

• US 20110119325A1
• Filed: 11/16/2009
• Published: 05/19/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/16/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sling Media LLC (Dish Network Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sling Media Incorporated (Dish Network Corporation)
• Inventors: Paul, John Michael, Melin, Mark David, Niles, Sylvain Jack, Cagney, Myles Patrick
• Granted Patent: US 9,015,225 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/029 Firewall traversal, e.g. tunnelling or, creating pinholes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/142 Managing session states for stateless protocols; Signalling session states; State transitions; Keeping-state mechanisms

Abstract

Systems and methods are described for delivering messages from one or more service hosts to clients via a network. A first request identifying the client is received at the message server, and a connection is established and maintained between the message server and the client in response to the first request. When a subsequent request that identifies the client is received from the service host, a message is transmitted from the message server to the client over the previously-established connection. The methods and techniques may be used, for example, to provide messages from various services to placeshifting devices or other clients communicating via the network.

Claims

1. A method to allow a first server to contact a client over a network using a message server, the method comprising:

receiving a first request identifying the client at the message server;

establishing a connection between the message server and the client in response to the first request;

receiving a second request from the first server at the message server, wherein the second request identifies the client;

in response to the second request, transmitting a message from the message server to the client over the connection.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising maintaining the connection as a persistent connection between the message server and the client prior to receiving the second request from the first server.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the maintaining comprises transmitting keepalive messages to the client via the persistent connection.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the connection is a transmission control protocol (TCP) connection.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving a first acknowledgement message from the client at the message server, and, in response to the first acknowledgement message, transmitting a second acknowledgement message from the message server to the first server.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising transmitting a timeout message from the message server to the first server if an acknowledgement message from the client is not received at the message server within a pre-determined time following the transmitting of the message.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein first server is configured to provide programming instructions to a digital video recorder associated with the client.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the second request identifies the client and comprises a payload that contains the message.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the message comprises a code that identifies the first server to the client.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the client is a placeshifting device, and wherein the message identifies the first server to the placeshifting device to thereby allow the placeshifting device to directly contact the first server.

11. A system to process messages from at least one service host to a plurality of clients, the system comprising:

a load balancer configured to receive the connection requests from each of the plurality of clients; and

a plurality of message servers, wherein the load balancer is configured to assign each of the connection requests to one of the plurality of message servers and wherein each message server is configured to establish and maintain persistent connections with at least some of the plurality of clients, to receive the messages from the at least one service host, and to transmit the messages to the at least some of the plurality of clients over the persistent connections.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the load balancer is further configured to determine information about each of the plurality of clients based upon the connection requests, and to assign each of the connection requests based upon the information.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the information comprises a type of client device, and wherein the load balancer is configured to determine the type of client device from an identifier contained in one of the connection requests.

14. The system of claim 11 wherein the load balancer is further configured to determine location information about each of the plurality of clients based upon the connection requests, and to assign each of the connection requests based upon the location information.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the load balancer is further configured to determine the location information about each of the plurality of clients from network addresses associated with the connection requests.

16. The system of claim 11 wherein each of the persistent connections are established in response to one of the plurality of message servers receiving an assigned connection request from the load balancer.

17. The system of claim 11 further comprising a service load balancer configured to receive each of the messages from the at least one service host and to direct each of the messages to one of the plurality of message servers that maintains the persistent connection to one of the plurality of clients identified in the message.

18. A method to establish an interaction between a first server and a client via a network, the method comprising:

receiving a first request identifying the client;

assigning the first request to an assigned one of a plurality of message servers;

maintaining a persistent connection between the assigned one of the plurality of message servers and the client;

receiving a second request from the first server, wherein the second request identifies the client;

in response to the second request, transmitting a message from the assigned one of the plurality of message servers to the client over the persistent connection, wherein the message comprises information that allows the client to contact the first server and thereby establish the interaction between the first server and the client.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising determining the assigned one of the plurality of message servers based upon the client identified in the second request.

20. The method of claim 18 wherein the assigned one of the plurality of message servers is determined at least in part by at least one of a client type or a client location.