METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MANAGING HIGH-BANDWIDTH DATA SHARING

• US 20130268690A1
• Filed: 06/05/2013
• Published: 10/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/26/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PalTalk Holdings Incorporated (Paltalk, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: PalTalk Holdings Incorporated (Paltalk, Inc.)
• Inventors: Scherer, Perry, Lattanzio, Mario
• Granted Patent: US 9,413,789 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/232
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1013 Network architectures, gateways, control or user entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

A server arrangement for facilitating the exchange of content between a plurality of user system associated with a common group is provided by employing a centralized server for directing publishing and extracting of content and a plurality of associated servers for facilitating the transmission of content between the user systems. A publisher is directed by the central server to a specific data server where content is to be provided. A consumer is directed by the central server to a specific data server from which content is to be extracted. The system is particularly adept for facilitating the exchange of video data between members of a common group coupled to the Internet.

Claims

1. A method for providing near real-time video data to a consumer system, the data provided by a data server receiving the data from a publisher system, the method comprising:

(a) receiving video data from the publisher system at a first transmission rate, the video data associated with a plurality of video frames;

(b) receiving a request for the video data from a consumer system associated with a second transmission rate, the second transmission rate higher than the first transmission rate;

(c) providing or transmitting information to the consumer system for enabling the consumer system to establish a direct connection via a computer network;

(d) providing or transmitting the video data to the consumer system in response to receiving the request for the video data;

(e) updating an indicator identifying the most recent video frame provided to the consumer system;

(f) determining whether the available video data includes new video frames by reference to the stored indicator;

(g) providing the new video frames in response to determining that new video frames are available and returning to step (c); and

(h) returning to step (c) in response to determining that no new video frames are available so as to conserve data server usage.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the content is provided or transmitted to the consuming system of the one or more consuming systems in or via a PULL session.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

facilitating a conference which includes a plurality of user systems, wherein each user system is both a system which publishes content and a system which consumes content.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein a system which publishes a first data content also consumes a second data content.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

if updated content is available via the publishing system, establishing a new connection between the publishing system and the data server for transmitting the updated content from the publishing system to the data server.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

if updated content is available via the publisher system, establishing a new connection between the publisher system and the data server for transmitting the updated content from the publisher system to the data server.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

providing or transmitting the content to the consumer system requesting to receive or retrieve the content in response to one or more requests to receive or retrieve the content.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising instructing the publisher system to stop transmitting toe data content to the consumer system when the consumer system stops viewing the content provided by or from the publisher system.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising instructing the publisher system to wait until a second one or more requests to receive or retrieve content is received.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

instructing the publisher system to stop transmitting the content to the data server when the consumer system stops viewing the content provided by or from the publisher system; and

instructing the publisher system to wait until a next one or more requests to retrieve or receive content is received.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the publishing system stops transmitting the video data content to the data server—

when the consumer systems stops viewing the video data content provided by or from the publishing system, and further wherein the system instructs the publishing system to wait until a second one or more requests to receive or retrieve content is received.

12. A method by a data server for preventing unauthorized publishing of content on the data server, the content provided by a publisher system, the method comprising:

receiving a request to publish content from a publishing system, the request including an encrypted counter having a counter value;

decrypting the counter to extract the counter value;

comparing the counter value to a locally stored value associated with the publishing system; and

allowing the publisher system to transmit content to the data server in response to determining that the counter value is greater than the locally stored value.

13. A method by a data server for preventing unauthorized consuming of content on the data server, the content consumer by a consumer system, the method comprising:

receiving a request to extract content from the data server from a consumer system, the content associated with a publishing system, the request including an encrypted counter having a counter value;

decrypting the counter to extract the counter value;

comparing the counter value to a locally stored value associated with the consumer system and associated with the content from the publishing system; and

allowing the consumer system to extract content from the data server in response to determining that the counter value is greater than the locally stored value.