OPTIMIZING SERVER DELIVERY OF CONTENT BY SELECTIVE INCLUSION OF OPTIONAL DATA BASED ON OPTIMIZATION CRITERIA

• US 20120096117A1
• Filed: 12/20/2011
• Published: 04/19/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/20/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Silver Maple, Series 86 of Allied Security Trust I (Allied Security Trust)
• Original Assignee: H-CHIP HOLDINGS, LLC
• Inventors: Gautier, Taylor S.
• Granted Patent: US 8,484,315 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/986 Document structures and storage, e.g. HTML extensions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/561 Adding application-functional data or data for application control, e.g. adding metadata
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/564 Enhancement of application control based on intercepted application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/24 Negotiation of communication capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing

Abstract

Optimization constraints are used to select an appropriate content item from an available group of content items which are ordered in a specific manner to facilitate the proper selection of the content item, even if the exact item desired is not present. The server is then able to insert the selected content item into the outgoing content page requested by the client. The optimization constraints can be, but are not limited to, anyone of the following: communication channel performance (bandwidth), client operating system, client processor, client display capabilities, client installed software (video or audio codecs for example), and/or user preferences. A software product and method enable selective delivery of content to client devices of varying performance characteristics, including varying bandwidth, by selective filtering and inclusion of markup language content using tags demarcating optional content. An optimization constraint is used to select one of the items.

Claims

1. A method of optimizing the delivery of content data from a server to a client device, the method comprising:

storing non-optional content data and optional content data, the optional content data including a plurality of optional content items, each of the optional content items representing a different version of the optional content data, at least one of the different versions corresponding to a device attribute associated with the client device;

automatically selecting the non-optional content data;

automatically selecting at least one of the plurality of optional content items corresponding to the device attribute associated with the client device; and

transmitting the selected non-optional content data and the selected optional content item to the client device.

2. A method as in claim 1 further including determining a device attribute of the client device, and wherein automatically selecting at least one of the plurality of optional content items includes automatically selecting at least one of the plurality of optional content items based on the determined device attribute.

3. A method as in claim 2 wherein the device attribute is a performance characteristic of the client device.

4. A method as in claim 3 wherein the performance characteristic is any combination of:

client device operating system, client device browser software, client device central processing unit type, client device main memory size, client device graphics memory size, client device display area, client device display resolution, and client device graphics processor type.

5. A method as in claim 2 wherein determining a device attribute includes determining the presence or absence of a device feature forming a part of the client device.

6. A method as in claim 1 wherein the device attribute is a performance characteristic of a communications channel between the server and the client device.

7. A method as in claim 6 wherein the performance characteristic is the data transmission rate of the communications channel.

8. A method as in claim 1 wherein:

the device attribute has a performance characteristic;

the optional content items include items associated with a performance characteristic; and

automatically selecting at least one of the plurality of optional content items includes automatically selecting at least one of the plurality of optional content items associated with a performance characteristic associated with a device attribute of the client device.

9. A method as in claim 8 wherein:

automatically selecting at least one of the plurality of optional content items includes determining the performance characteristic of the device attribute of the client device and automatically selecting an optional content item with the performance characteristic most closely associated with the determined performance characteristic of the device attribute of the client device.

10. A method as in claim 1 wherein:

the device attribute is associated with a range of capability characteristics, ranging from low capability to high capability;

the optional content items include items associated with a capability characteristic; and

automatically selecting at least one of the plurality of optional content items includes automatically selecting at least one of the plurality of optional content items associated with a quality characteristic associated with a device attribute of the client device.

11. A method as in claim 10 wherein:

automatically selecting at least one of the plurality of optional content items includes determining the highest quality characteristic available for the device attribute of the client device and automatically selecting an optional content item with the determined highest quality characteristic of the device attribute of the client device.

12. A method as in claim 11 wherein:

determining the highest quality characteristic includes determining the highest quality characteristic based on an optimization constraint; and

automatically selecting at least one of the plurality of optional content items includes using the optimization constraint to select an optional content item with the determined highest quality characteristic of the device attribute of the client device.

13. A method as in claim 12 wherein the optimization constraint is an optimization of an attribute selected from the group consisting of:

client device operating system, client device central processing unit type, client device main memory size, client device graphics memory size, client device display area, client device display resolution, and client device graphics processor type.

14. A method as in claim 12 wherein the optimization constraint is determined based on the presence or absence of a selected software item present on the client device.

15. A method as in claim 14 wherein the optimization constraint is determined based on the presence of a selected operating system on the client device.

16. A method as in claim 1 wherein:

the device attribute is the presence or absence of a software item;

the optional content items includes at least one item associated with the presence of the software item, and at least one item associated with the absence of the software item; and

automatically selecting at least one of the plurality of optional content items includes automatically selecting at least one of the plurality of optional content items based on the presence or absence of the software item on the client device.

17. A method as in claim 16 wherein the software item is selected from the group consisting of:

a specific operating system type, a specific browser software type, and a specific rendering software type.

18. A method of optimizing the delivery of content data from a server to a client device, the method comprising:

receiving a request for content data from a client device, the content data including at least one item of non-optional content data and at least one item of optional content data;

determining an optimized characteristic of an attribute of the client device;

selecting a non-optional content data item corresponding to the request from a group including non-optional content data items and a plurality of optional content data items, each optional content data item representing a different version of the optional content data, each version corresponding to a different optimized characteristic of the attribute of the client device;

selecting an optional content data item corresponding to the optimized characteristic of the attribute of the client device; and

transmitting the selected non-optional content data item and the selected optional content data item to the client device.

19. A method as in claim 18 wherein the optimized characteristic is selected from the group consisting of:

the operating system present on the client device, the browser software type present on the client device, the type of central processing unit present on client device, the amount of main memory available on the client device, the amount of graphics-specific memory available on the client device, the size of the display area available on the client device, the display resolution of the client device, and the type of graphics processing unit present on client device.