CONDITIONAL PRE-DELIVERY OF CONTENT TO A USER DEVICE

• US 20150100666A1
• Filed: 10/03/2014
• Published: 04/09/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/04/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Opanga Networks, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Opanga Networks, Inc.
• Inventors: HARRANG, Jeffrey Paul, HADORN, Ben, BURNETTE, John, GIBBONS, David
• Granted Patent: US 10,511,688 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5681 Pre-fetching or pre-delivering data based on network characteristics
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/61 taking into account QoS or priority requirements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals

Abstract

Systems and methods for delivering content to user devices before the content is selected or requested (e.g. a pre-delivery of content) within predetermined delivery windows and/or during suitable pre-delivery conditions are described. In some embodiments, the systems and methods receive an indication that content is available for pre-delivery from a content server to a user device over a network, select a delivery window that satisfies one or more pre-delivery policy conditions associated with pre-delivery of content to the user device, and cause the content to be delivered to the user device upon commencement of the selected delivery window.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

determining that content is available for pre-delivery from a content server to a user device over a network;

selecting a delivery window that satisfies one or more pre-delivery policy conditions associated with pre-delivery of content to the user device; and

causing the content to be delivered to the user device upon commencement of the selected delivery window.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein causing the content to be delivered to the user device upon commencement of the selected delivery window includes causing the content to be delivered to the user device before receiving a request from a user associated with the user device to playback the content.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein causing the content to be delivered to the user device upon commencement of the selected delivery window includes causing a portion of the content to be delivered to the user device during the selected delivery window.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting a delivery window that satisfies one or more pre-delivery policy conditions associated with pre-delivery of content to the user device includes selecting a delivery window that satisfies one or more pre-delivery policy conditions associated with a type of network via which to pre-deliver content to the user device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting a delivery window that satisfies one or more pre-delivery policy conditions associated with pre-delivery of content to the user device includes selecting a time window that currently satisfies the one or more pre-delivery policy conditions associated with pre-delivery of content to the user device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting a delivery window that satisfies one or more pre-delivery policy conditions associated with pre-delivery of content to the user device includes selecting a future time window predicted to satisfy the one or more pre-delivery policy conditions associated with pre-delivery of content to the user device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting a delivery window that satisfies one or more pre-delivery policy conditions associated with pre-delivery of content to the user device includes selecting a future time window associated with historical pre-delivery of content to the user device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting a delivery window that satisfies one or more pre-delivery policy conditions associated with pre-delivery of content to the user device includes:

determining a predicted time period within which a user of the user device will request playback of the content based on previous playback patterns associated with the user; and

selecting a delivery window that satisfies the one or more pre-delivery policy conditions and occurs before the predicted time period.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting a delivery window that satisfies one or more pre-delivery policy conditions associated with pre-delivery of content to the user device includes:

determining a predicted time period within which a user of the user device will request playback of the content based on previous playback patterns associated with the content; and

selecting a delivery window that satisfies the one or more pre-delivery policy conditions and occurs before the predicted time period.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more pre-delivery policy conditions include a condition that identifies a pre-delivery network as any wireless network.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more pre-delivery policy conditions include a condition that identifies a pre-delivery network as performing above a certain quality threshold.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more pre-delivery policy conditions include a condition that identifies a pre-delivery network as a specific operator of a network associated with the user device.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more pre-delivery policy conditions include a condition that identifies a certain time period within which to pre-deliver content to the user device.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more pre-delivery policy conditions include a condition that identifies a certain location of the user device at which to pre-deliver content to the user device.

15. A system, comprising:

a content module that receives an indication that content is available for pre-delivery from a content server to a user device over a network;

a policy module that selects a delivery window that satisfies one or more pre-delivery policy conditions associated with pre-delivery of content to the user device; and

a pre-delivery module that causes the content to be delivered to the user device upon commencement of the selected delivery window.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the pre-delivery module causes the content to be delivered to the user device before receiving a request from a user associated with the user device to playback the content.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the pre-delivery module causes a portion of the content to be delivered to the user device during the selected delivery window.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the policy module selects a delivery window that satisfies a condition defining a suitable network type via which to pre-deliver content to the user device.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the policy module selects a future delivery window predicted to satisfy one or more predetermined conditions associated with a suitable network via which to pre-deliver content to the user device.

20. A computer-readable storage medium whose contents, when executed by a user device, cause the user device to perform operations, the operations comprising:

determining an occurrence of one or more predetermined pre-delivery conditions associated with a network via which to pre-deliver content to the user device;

identifying one or more content items located at a remote content server are available for pre-delivery to the user device; and

causing at least a portion of the identified one or more content items to be delivered to the user device during the occurrence of the one or more predetermined pre-delivery conditions.