Apparatus and Method For Matching Users For Online Sessions

• US 20120011189A1
• Filed: 07/07/2010
• Published: 01/12/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/07/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Werner, Jeremy Matthew, Smith, Philip, Vyrros, Andrew H., Gates, Patrick
• Granted Patent: US 8,341,207 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/202
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2553 Binding renewal aspects, e.g. using keep-alive messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/256 NAT traversal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2575 using address mapping retrieval, e.g. simple traversal of user datagram protocol through session traversal utilities for NAT [STUN]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/104 Grouping of entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services

Abstract

An apparatus, method, and machine-readable medium are described for establishing peer-to-peer (“P2P”) communication channels. In particular, in one embodiment, a matchmaker service performs a series of operations to service match requests received from a group of mobile devices. In one embodiment, the matchmaker service groups the match requests into matchable sets based on the application for which the requests are received and one or more variables associated with the application. Match requests within each match set can then be matched based on variables such as the NAT type, connection type and language associated with each of the mobile devices. Other variables such as geographical location, experience level, and age of the match requests may also be used to render match decisions.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for establishing peer-to-peer (“

P2P”

) communication between mobile devices comprising;

receiving a plurality of match requests from a plurality of mobile devices, each of the match requests including application data indicating a particular application for which a match is being requested and further including network configuration data indicating a network configuration for each of the plurality of mobile devices;

determining match fits for groups of the plurality of mobile devices, the match fits based, at least in part, on the network configuration data of the mobile devices; and

generating matches for two or more mobile devices based on both the application data and the match fits determined for the mobile devices.

2. The method as in claim 1 wherein determining the match fit includes determining compatibility between the network configurations of two or more mobile devices submitting the match requests.

3. The method as in claim 2 wherein determining the network configuration compatibility comprises determining the network address translation (“

NAT”

) device types used by the two or more mobile devices, the method further comprising attempting to generate matches between mobile devices having NAT device types which are capable of establishing direct P2P communication channels.

4. The method as in claim 1 wherein the match fit is based on connection types of each of the mobile devices, the method further comprising attempting to generate matches between mobile devices having similar connection types.

5. The method as in claim 1 wherein the connection types include WiFi connections, third generation (“

3G”

) cellular connections and Edge cellular connections.

6. The method as in claim 1 wherein the match fit is based on languages for which the mobile devices are configured, the method further comprising attempting to generate matches between mobile devices having similar languages.

7. The method as in claim 1 wherein the match requests further include configuration variables for each application, the method further comprising generating matches for the mobile devices based, in part, on the configuration variables.

8. The method as in claim 7 wherein the configuration variables include an experience level for the application and/or a sub-application of the application.

9. The method as in claim 1 further comprising:

determining an age of each of the match requests; and

adjusting the match fit for potential matches between two or more mobile devices based on the age of each of the match requests.

10. The method as in claim 9 wherein adjusting comprises increasing the match fit for potential matches with an age above a specified threshold.

11. The method as in claim 10 wherein adjusting comprises continuing to increase the match fit as the age increases above one or more additional thresholds.

12. The method as in claim 1 wherein generating matches further comprises:

grouping match requests into match groups based on the application data;

determining the match fit for match requests within each match group; and

generating matches for the mobile devices with each match group based on the determined match fit.

13. The method as in claim 1 wherein generating matches further comprises:

grouping match requests into match groups based on the application data;

determining the match fit for pairs of match requests within each match set;

seeding each of a plurality of match sets with pairs of match requests having a match fit above a specified threshold;

adding match requests to each match set;

retaining the additional match requests in each match set if the combined match fits in the match set are below the specified threshold.

14. The method as in claim 13 further comprising:

continuing to add match sets until match size requirements have been met.

15. The method as in claim 1 wherein the match requests include NAT traversal/connection data associated with each of the mobile devices, the method further comprising:

transmitting a notification to a set of matched mobile devices that a match has been made, the notification sent to each mobile device including NAT traversal/connection data needed to connect to one or more of the other mobile devices included in the match.

16. The method as in claim 15 wherein NAT traversal/connection data includes a public IP address and port for each of the mobile devices.

17. A machine-readable medium having program code stored thereon which, when executed by a computing device, causes the computing device to perform the operations of:

receiving a plurality of match requests from a plurality of mobile devices, each of the match requests including application data indicating a particular application for which a match is being requested and further including network configuration data indicating a network configuration for each of the plurality of mobile devices;

determining match fits for groups of the plurality of mobile devices, the match fits based, at least in part, on the network configuration data of the mobile devices; and

generating matches for two or more mobile devices based on both the application data and the match fits determined for the mobile devices.

18. The machine-readable medium as in claim 17 wherein determining the match fit includes determining compatibility between the network configurations of two or more mobile devices submitting the match requests.

19. The machine-readable medium as in claim 18 wherein determining the network configuration compatibility comprises determining the network address translation (“

NAT”

) device types used by the two or more mobile devices, the machine-readable medium further comprising program code to cause the computing device to perform the operation of attempting to generate matches between mobile devices having NAT device types which are capable of establishing direct P2P communication channels.

20. The machine-readable medium as in claim 17 wherein the match fit is based on connection types of each of the mobile devices, the machine-readable medium further comprising program code to cause the computing device to perform the operation of attempting to generate matches between mobile devices having similar connection types.

21. The machine-readable medium as in claim 17 wherein the connection types include WiFi connections, third generation (“

3G”

) cellular connections and Edge cellular connections.

22. The machine-readable medium as in claim 17 wherein the match fit is based on languages for which the mobile devices are configured, the machine-readable medium further comprising program code to cause the computing device to perform the operation of attempting to generate matches between mobile devices having similar languages.

23. The machine-readable medium as in claim 17 wherein the match requests further include configuration variables for each application, the machine-readable medium further comprising program code to cause the computing device to perform the operation of generating matches for the mobile devices based, in part, on the configuration variables.

24. The machine-readable medium as in claim 23 wherein the configuration variables include an experience level for the application and/or a sub-application of the application.

25. The machine-readable medium as in claim 17 further comprising program code to cause the computing device to perform the operation of:

determining an age of each of the match requests; and

adjusting the match fit for potential matches between two or more mobile devices based on the age of each of the match requests.

26. The machine-readable medium as in claim 25 wherein adjusting comprises increasing the match fit for potential matches with an age above a specified threshold.

27. The machine-readable medium as in claim 26 wherein adjusting comprises continuing to increase the match fit as the age increases above one or more additional thresholds.

28. The machine-readable medium as in claim 17 wherein generating matches further comprises:

grouping match requests into match groups based on the application data;

determining the match fit for match requests within each match group; and

generating matches for the mobile devices with each match group based on the determined match fit.

29. The machine-readable medium as in claim 17 wherein generating matches further comprises:

grouping match requests into match groups based on the application data;

determining the match fit for pairs of match requests within each match set;

seeding each of a plurality of match sets with pairs of match requests having a match fit above a specified threshold;

adding match requests to each match set;

retaining the additional match requests in each match set if the combined match fits in the match set are below the specified threshold.

30. The machine-readable medium as in claim 29 further comprising program code to cause the computing device to perform the operation of:

continuing to add match sets until match size requirements have been met.

31. The machine-readable medium as in claim 17 wherein the match requests include NAT traversal/connection data associated with each of the mobile devices, the machine-readable medium further comprising:

transmitting a notification to a set of matched mobile devices that a match has been made, the notification sent to each mobile device including NAT traversal/connection data needed to connect to one or more of the other mobile devices included in the match.

32. The machine-readable medium as in claim 31 wherein NAT traversal/connection data includes a public IP address and port for each of the mobile devices.

37. The computing device as in claim 17 wherein the connection types include WiFi connections, third generation (“

3G”

) cellular connections and Edge cellular connections.

33. A computing device comprising a memory for storing program code and a processor for processing the program code to perform the operations of:

receiving a plurality of match requests from a plurality of mobile devices, each of the match requests including application data indicating a particular application for which a match is being requested and further including network configuration data indicating a network configuration for each of the plurality of mobile devices;

determining match fits for groups of the plurality of mobile devices, the match fits based, at least in part, on the network configuration data of the mobile devices; and

generating matches for two or more mobile devices based on both the application data and the match fits determined for the mobile devices.

34. The computing device as in claim 33 wherein determining the match fit includes determining compatibility between the network configurations of two or more mobile devices submitting the match requests.

35. The computing device as in claim 34 wherein determining the network configuration compatibility comprises determining the network address translation (“

NAT”

) device types used by the two or more mobile devices, the computing device further comprising program code to cause the processor to perform the operation of attempting to generate matches between mobile devices having NAT device types which are capable of establishing direct P2P communication channels.

36. The computing device as in claim 33 wherein the match fit is based on connection types of each of the mobile devices, the computing device further comprising program code to cause the processor to perform the operation of attempting to generate matches between mobile devices having similar connection types.

38. The computing device as in claim 33 wherein the match fit is based on languages for which the mobile devices are configured, the computing device further comprising program code to cause the processor to perform the operation of attempting to generate matches between mobile devices having similar languages.

39. The computing device as in claim 33 wherein the match requests further include configuration variables for each application, the computing device further comprising program code to cause the processor to perform the operation of generating matches for the mobile devices based, in part, on the configuration variables.

40. The computing device as in claim 39 wherein the configuration variables include an experience level for the application and/or a sub-application of the application.

41. The computing device as in claim 33 further comprising program code to cause the processor to perform the operations of:

determining an age of each of the match requests; and

adjusting the match fit for potential matches between two or more mobile devices based on the age of each of the match requests.

42. The computing device as in claim 41 wherein adjusting comprises increasing the match fit for potential matches with an age above a specified threshold.

43. The computing device as in claim 42 wherein adjusting comprises continuing to increase the match fit as the age increases above one or more additional thresholds.

44. The computing device as in claim 33 wherein generating matches further comprises:

grouping match requests into match groups based on the application data;

determining the match fit for match requests within each match group; and

generating matches for the mobile devices with each match group based on the determined match fit.

45. The computing device as in claim 33 wherein generating matches further comprises:

grouping match requests into match groups based on the application data;

determining the match fit for pairs of match requests within each match set;

seeding each of a plurality of match sets with pairs of match requests having a match fit above a specified threshold;

adding match requests to each match set;

retaining the additional match requests in each match set if the combined match fits in the match set are below the specified threshold.

46. The computing device as in claim 45 further comprising program code to cause the processor to perform the operations of:

continuing to add match sets until match size requirements have been met.

47. The computing device as in claim 33 wherein the match requests include NAT traversal/connection data associated with each of the mobile devices, the computing device further comprising:

transmitting a notification to a set of matched mobile devices that a match has been made, the notification sent to each mobile device including NAT traversal/connection data needed to connect to one or more of the other mobile devices included in the match.

48. The computing device as in claim 47 wherein NAT traversal/connection data includes a public IP address and port for each of the mobile devices.