PRE-DELIVERY OF CONTENT TO DEVICES

• US 20140280996A1
• Filed: 03/14/2014
• Published: 09/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Opanga Networks, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Opanga Networks, Inc.
• Inventors: HARRANG, Jeffrey Paul, BURNETTE, John, GIBBONS, David
• Granted Patent: US 9,888,003 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/229
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/252 Processing of multiple end-users' preferences to derive collaborative data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25891 being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/262 Content or additional data distribution scheduling, e.g. sending additional data at off-peak times, updating software modules, calculating the carousel transmission frequency, delaying a video stream transmission, generating play-lists scheduling strategies for dispatcher in multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/4881; arrangements for scheduling broadcast services or broadcast-related services H04H60/06; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10; establishing a time schedule or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/62
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4882 for displaying messages, e.g. warnings, reminders arrangements for providing short real-time information to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1895
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6543 for forcing some client operations, e.g. recording remote booting in general G06F9/4416

Abstract

Systems and methods for pre-delivering content to user devices are described. In some embodiments, the systems and methods may assign a user device to a group of user devices that receive content from a common network edge cache, identify one or more differences between content delivered to the user device and content delivered to the group of user devices via the common network edge cache, select a piece of content to deliver to the user device based on the identified one or more differences of content, and cause delivery of the selected piece of content to the user device.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

assigning a user device to a group of user devices that receive content from a common network edge cache;

identifying one or more differences between content delivered to the user device and content delivered to the group of user devices via the common network edge cache;

selecting a piece of content to deliver to the user device based on the identified one or more differences of content; and

causing delivery of the selected piece of content to the user device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein causing delivery of the selected piece of content to the user device includes causing pre-delivery of the selected piece of content to the user device by causing the common network edge cache to deliver the selected piece of content to a local cache of the user device before receiving a request for the selected piece of content from a user associated with the user device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein assigning a user device to a group of user devices that receive content from a common network edge cache includes assigning the user device to a group of user devices that each received a similar piece of content from the common network edge cache.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying one or more differences between content delivered to the user device and content delivered to the group of user devices via the common network edge cache includes identifying one or more pieces of content that have been delivered to at least one device within the group of user devices but not yet requested for delivery to the user device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting a piece of content to deliver to the user device based on the identified one or more differences of content includes selecting one or more pieces of content that have been delivered to a threshold number of user devices within the group of user devices but not yet delivered to the user device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein assigning a user device to a group of user devices that receive content from a common network edge cache includes assigning the user device to a group of user devices based on a match of user demographic information associated with a user of the user device to user demographic information associated with users of the group of user devices.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein assigning a user device to a group of user devices that receive content from a common network edge cache includes assigning the user device to a group of user devices based on a match of geographic location information for the user device to geographic location information for the group of user devices.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein assigning a user device to a group of user devices that receive content from a common network edge cache includes assigning the user device to a group of user devices based on a current context associated with a user of the user device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein assigning a user device to a group of user devices that receive content from a common network edge cache includes assigning the user device to a group of user devices having users that are friends within a social network with a user of the user device.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

notifying a user of the user device when the selected piece of content has been delivered to the user device.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying one or more differences between content delivered to the user device and content delivered to the group of user devices via the common network edge cache includes:

accessing a client list associated with content delivered by the common network edge cache to the group of user devices, the client list including information identifying user devices that have requested content via the common network edge cache and information identifying the requested content; and

identifying content requested by the user devices that was not requested by the user device.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying one or more differences between content delivered to the user device and content delivered to the group of user devices via the common network edge cache includes:

performing deep packet inspection of data delivered from the common network edge cache to the user device and user devices within the group of user devices; and

identifying content requested by the user devices that was not requested by the user device.

13. A system, comprising:

a device assignment module that assigns a user device to a group of user devices that receive content from a common network edge cache;

a content difference module that identifies one or more differences between content delivered to the user device and content delivered to the group of user devices via the common network edge cache;

a content selection module that selects a piece of content to deliver to the user device based on the identified one or more differences of content; and

a content delivery module that causes delivery of the selected piece of content to the user device.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the content delivery module causes pre-delivery of the selected piece of content to the user device.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the device assignment module assigns the user device to a group of user devices that each received a similar piece of content from the common network edge cache.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the device assignment module assigns the user device to a group of user devices based on a match of user demographic information associated with a user of the user device to user demographic information associated with users of the group of user devices.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the content selection module selects one or more pieces of content that have been delivered to a threshold number of user devices within the group of user devices but not yet delivered to the user device.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the content delivery module presents a notification to the user of the user device when the selected piece of content has been delivered to the user device.

19. A computer-readable storage medium whose contents, when executed by a computing system, cause the computing system to perform operations to pre-deliver content to a user device from a network edge cache, the operations comprising:

assigning the user device to a group of other user devices associated with the network edge cache based on a match of content preferences for a user associated with the user device to content preferences for users associated with the group of other user devices;

identifying content viewed by a threshold number of user devices within the identified group of user devices but not viewed by the user device; and

delivering the identified content to a local cache of the user device.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein assigning the user device to a group of other user devices associated with the network edge cache includes assigning the user device to a group of other user devices based on matching demographic information for a user of the user device to demographic information for users of the group of other user devices.

21. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the network edge cache is a group of federated network edge caches that deliver content to the user device and the group of other user devices.