TIERED-BASED BILLING FOR CONTENT DELIVERY

• US 20140155025A1
• Filed: 12/05/2012
• Published: 06/05/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/05/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cellco Partnership, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.), Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cellco Partnership, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.), Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Parker, Benjamin J., Ritter, Phillip A., Neisinger, Chris S., Hoffner, Barry F.
• Granted Patent: US 8,942,669 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/406
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/14 Charging , metering or billing arrangements for data wireline or wireless communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1485 Tariff-related aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/14 Channel dividing arrangements , i.e. in which a single bit stream is divided between several baseband channels and reassembled at the receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/80 Rating or billing plans; Tariff determination aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/22 Bandwidth or usage-sensitve billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/32 Involving wireless systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/44 Charging/billing arrangements for connection made over different networks, e.g. wireless and PSTN, ISDN, etc.
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/46 Connection to several service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 Accounting or billing

Abstract

One or more servers may: receive information regarding a content file stored by a device; provide information associated with a first cost value corresponding to a cost to deliver the content file from the device to a user device; receive a delivery instruction directing the one or more servers to provide a portion of the content file to the user device via one or more ports or via one or more access points, each of the one or more ports or the one or more access points being associated with respective one or more second cost values; generate a key associated with the information regarding the content file and with the delivery instruction; receive an indication of selection of the key by the user device; deliver, to the user device, the portion of the content file via the one or more ports or the one or more access points.

Claims

1. A method performed by one or more servers, the method comprising:

receiving, by the one or more servers, information regarding a content file stored by a device;

providing, by the one or more servers and to the device, information associated with a first cost value,

the first cost value corresponding to a cost to deliver the content file from the device to a user device via a network associated with a network provider;

receiving, by the one or more servers, a delivery instruction,

the delivery instruction directing the one or more servers to provide a portion of the content file to the user device via one or more ports or via one or more access points of the network,

each of the one or more ports or the one or more access points being associated with a respective one or more second cost values;

generating, by the one or more servers, a key associated with the information regarding the content file and with the delivery instruction;

receiving, by the one or more servers and from the user device, an indication of a selection of the key by the user device; and

delivering, by the one or more servers and to the user device, the portion of the content file via the one or more ports or the one or more access points based on receiving the indication of the selection of the key.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing information regarding delivery of the portion of the content file to the user device to identify the one or more ports or the one or more access points used to deliver the portion of the content file and to identify a particular second cost value, of the one or more respective second cost values, associated with delivery of the portion of the content file; and

performing a billing settlement function, when the first portion of the content file or the second portion of the content file is delivered to the user device, to assess a first debit transaction, corresponding to the first cost value, to an account associated with the device, assess a first credit transaction, corresponding to the first cost value, to an account associated with the network provider, assess a second debit transaction, corresponding to the particular second cost values, to an account associated with the user device, or assess a second credit transaction, corresponding to the particular second cost value, to the account associated with the device.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

inspecting the content file;

determining network load information for delivery of the content file based on inspecting the content file; and

determining the first cost value based on determining the network load information,

where providing the information regarding the first cost value is based on determining the first cost value.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

determining a policy to apply to a data flow associated with delivery of the portion of the content file to the user device,

the policy being determined based on the network load information,

applying the policy to the data flow to provide a particular level of quality of service to the data flow.

5. The method of claim 1, where one of the one or more second cost values is greater than zero, the method further comprising:

presenting an option to the user device to receive the portion of the content file; and

receiving, from the user device, an indication of a selection to receive the portion of the content file;

where delivering, to the user device, the portion of the content file is based on receiving the indication of the selection to receive the portion of the content file.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing analytics data of a data flow associated with delivery of the portion of the content file to the user device; and

performing a network diagnostic function based on the analytics data,

the network diagnostic function identifying a network outage when the analytics data does not satisfy a particular performance threshold.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving information regarding the user device; and

verifying that the user device is authorized to receive the portion of the content file based on receiving the information regarding the user device,

where delivering the portion of the content file is based on verifying that the user device is authorized to receive the portion of the content file.

8. A system comprising:

one or more servers to;

receive information regarding a content file stored by a device;

provide, to the device, information associated with a first cost value,

the first cost value corresponding to a cost to deliver the content file from the device to a user device via a network associated with a network provider;

receive a delivery instruction,

the delivery instruction directing the one or more servers to provide a portion of the content file to the user device via one or more ports or via one or more access points of the network,

each of the one or more ports or the one or more access points being associated with a respective second cost value of one or more second cost values;

generate a key associated with the information regarding the content file and with the delivery instruction;

receive, from the user device, an indication of a selection of the key by the user device;

receive information regarding the user device;

verify that the user device is authorized to receive the portion of the content file based on receiving the information regarding the user device; and

deliver, to the user device, the portion of the content file via the one or more ports or the one or more access points based on receiving the indication of the selection of the key and verifying that the user device is authorized to receive the portion of the content file.

9. The system of claim 8, where the one or more servers are further to:

store information regarding delivery of the portion of the content file to the user device to identify the one or more ports or the one or more access points used to deliver the portion of the content file and to identify a particular second cost value, of the one or more respective second cost values, associated with delivery of the portion of the content file; and

perform a billing settlement function, when the first portion of the content file or the second portion of the content file is delivered to the user device, to assess a first debit transaction, corresponding to the first cost value, to an account associated with the device, assess a first credit transaction, corresponding to the first cost value, to an account associated with the network provider, assess a second debit transaction, corresponding to the particular second cost values, to an account associated with the user device, or assess a second credit transaction, corresponding to the particular second cost value, to the account associated with the device.

10. The system of claim 9, where the one or more servers are further to:

inspect the content file;

determine network load information for delivery of the content file based on inspecting the content file; and

determine the first cost value based on determining the network load information,

where when providing the information regarding the first cost value, the one or more servers are further to provide the information regarding the first cost value based on determining the first cost value.

11. The system of claim 10, where the one or more servers are further to:

determine a policy to apply to a data flow associated with delivery of the portion of the content file to the user device,

the policy being determined based on the network load information,

apply the policy to the data flow to provide a particular level of quality of service to the data flow.

12. The system of claim 9, where one of the one or more second cost values is greater than zero, and the one or more servers are further to:

present an option to the user device to receive the portion of the content file; and

receive, from the user device, an indication of a selection of the option to receive the portion of the content file;

where when delivering the portion of the content file, the one or more servers are further to deliver the portion of the content file based on receiving the indication of the selection of the option to receive the portion of the content file.

13. The system of claim 9, where the one or more servers are further to:

store analytics data of a data flow associated with delivery of the portion of the content file to the user device; and

perform a network diagnostic function based on the analytics data,

the network diagnostic function identifying a network outage when the analytics data does not satisfy a particular performance threshold.

14. A computer-readable medium for storing instructions, the instructions comprising:

a plurality of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors associated with one or more servers, cause the one or more processors to;

receive information regarding a content file stored by a device;

determine a first cost value associated with a first portion of the content file;

determine a second cost value associated with a second portion of the content file;

receive a delivery instruction,

the delivery instruction directing the one or more servers to deliver, to a user device, the first portion of the content file via a first port or a first access point of a network, and deliver the second portion of the content file via a second port or a second access point of the network,

the first port or the first access point being associated with the first cost value,

the second port or the second access point being associated with the second cost value;

generate a key associated with the information regarding the content file and with the delivery instruction;

receive, from the user device, an indication of selection of the key; and

deliver, to the user device, the first portion of the content file via the first port or the first access point, based on receiving the indication of the selection of the key; and

deliver, to the user device, the second portion of the content file via the second port or the second access point, based on receiving the indication of the selection of the key.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, where the plurality of instructions further cause the one or more processors to:

determine network load information for delivery of the first portion of the content file; and

determine network load information for delivery of the second portion of the content file;

where one or more instructions, of the plurality of instructions, to determine the first cost value further cause the one or more processors to determine the first cost value based on determining the network load information for the first portion of the content file, and

where one or more instructions, of the plurality of instructions, to determine the second cost value further cause the one or more processors to determine the second cost value based on determining the network load information for the second portion of the content file.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, where the plurality of instructions further cause the one or more processors to:

store information regarding delivery of the first portion of the content file and the second portion of the content file to the user device; and

perform a billing settlement function, when the first portion of the content file or the second portion of the content file is delivered to the user device, to assess a first credit transaction, corresponding to the first cost value, to an account associated with a network provider or assess a second credit transaction, corresponding to the second cost value, to the account associated with the network provider.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, where the plurality of instructions further cause the one or more processors to:

determine a first policy to apply to a first data flow associated with delivery of the first portion of the content file to the user device,

the first policy being determined based on network load information associated with the first portion of the content file;

apply the first policy to the first data flow to provide a particular level of quality of service to the first data flow;

determine a second policy to apply to a second data flow associated with delivery of the second portion of the content file to the user device,

the second policy being determined based on network load information associated with the second portion of the content file; and

apply the second policy to the second data flow to provide a particular level of quality of service to the second data flow

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, where the first cost value is greater than zero, and the plurality of instructions further cause the one or more processors to:

present an option to the user device to receive the first portion of the content file; and

receive, from the user device, an indication of selection to receive the first portion of the content file,

where one or more instructions, of the plurality of instructions, to deliver the first portion of the content file, further cause the one or more processors to deliver the first portion of the content file based on receiving the indication of selection to receive the first portion of the content file.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, where the plurality of instructions further cause the one or more processors to:

store analytics data of a data flow associated with delivery of the first portion or the second portion of the content file to the user device; and

perform a network diagnostic function based on the analytics data,

the network diagnostic function identifying a network outage when the analytics data does not satisfy a particular performance threshold.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, where the plurality of instructions further cause the one or more processors to:

receive information regarding the user device; and

verify that the user device is authorized to receive the first portion of the content file based on receiving the information regarding the user device,

where one or more instructions, of the plurality of instructions, to deliver the first portion of the content file further cause the one or more processors to deliver the first portion of the content file based on verifying that the user device is authorized to receive the first portion of the content file.