APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR AGGREGATING DISPARATE STORAGE ON CONSUMER ELECTRONICS DEVICES

• US 20120066336A1
• Filed: 10/19/2011
• Published: 03/15/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Grannan, Michael F.
• Granted Patent: US 8,595,315 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/213
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2812 describing content present in a home automation network, e.g. audio video content retrieval from the Internet G06F16/95
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/303 Terminal profiles

Abstract

A method includes determining whether a requesting device includes sufficient available memory to store a media file. The method further includes determining whether a best fit memory block is available in a particular device of a plurality of devices in response to a determination that the requesting device includes insufficient available memory.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

determining, at a server, whether a requesting device includes sufficient available memory to store a media file; and

determining whether a best fit memory block is available in a particular device of a plurality of devices in response to a determination that the requesting device includes insufficient available memory.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a request to store the media file from the requesting device, wherein the request includes a size associated with the media file.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the best fit memory block is available includes scanning an internal memory allocation table.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the internal memory allocation table identifies available memory blocks of the plurality of devices, wherein each of the available memory blocks is adapted to be aggregated with at least one additional memory block of the plurality of devices to store the media file.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the best fit memory block is a smallest available memory block that satisfies a size of the media file.

6. The server of claim 1, wherein the best fit memory block has a block size that is greater than or equal to a size of the media file.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the media file at the best fit memory block.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining whether the requesting device includes sufficient available memory based at least in part on a scan of an internal memory allocation table, wherein the sufficient available memory includes at least one available memory block.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

allocating memory of the requesting device to store the media file in the requesting device based at least in part on the scan of the internal memory allocation table; and

storing the media file at the allocated memory of the requesting device.

10. A non-transitory processor-readable medium including processor-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

determine that a requesting device includes insufficient available memory to store a media file; and

determine whether a best fit memory block is available in a particular device of a plurality of devices in response to the determination that the requesting device includes insufficient available memory.

11. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 10, further including processor-executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to identify available memory blocks that, when aggregated, satisfy a size of the media file in response to a determination that the best fit memory block is unavailable, wherein the identified available memory blocks include at least a first memory block and a second memory block.

12. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the identified available memory blocks are a smallest number of available memory blocks that, when aggregated, satisfy the size of the media file, and wherein the identified available memory blocks are included in a first device of the plurality of devices.

13. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 10, further including processor-executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to divide the media file into at least a first portion and a second portion.

14. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 13, further including processor-executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

store the first portion at a first memory block of a first device of the plurality of devices; and

store the second portion at a second memory block of a second device of the plurality of devices.

15. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim of claim 14, further including processor-executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to update a linked list data structure associated with a media asset table, wherein the updated linked list data structure indicates that the first portion is stored at the first memory block of the first device.

16. A server comprising:

a processor; and

a memory accessible to the processor, wherein the memory includes a media management server module that is executable by the processor to;

determine that a requesting device includes insufficient available memory to store a media file; and

determine whether a best fit memory block is available in a particular device of a plurality of devices in response to the determination that the requesting device includes insufficient available memory.

17. The server of claim 16, wherein the media management server module is further executable by the processor to determine whether the particular device is a portable device.

18. The server of claim 16, wherein the media management server module is further executable by the processor to determine whether the particular device includes a removable memory based at least in part on a device profile.

19. The server of claim 16, wherein the media management server module is further executable by the processor to present an option to cancel a request received from the requesting device to store the media file prior to storing the media file at the particular device.

20. The server of claim 16, further comprising a network interface coupled to the processor, wherein the network interface comprises at least one of an ethernet interface, a universal serial bus interface, a power line networking interface, a wireless fidelity interface, and an ultra wideband interface.