APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR MANAGING DELIVERY OF CONTENT IN A NETWORK WITH LIMITED BANDWIDTH USING PRE-CACHING
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Accused Products
Abstract
Apparatus and methods for managing provision of content to devices in a content delivery network. In one exemplary embodiment, content with a high probability of viewership is sent to consumer premises equipment (CPE) during off-peak periods and stored prior to viewing. An application is utilized to manage decisions related to content provision. The computer program will identify content that is likely to be of interest users associated with respective CPE, and schedule provision of that content in advance of viewing. Then, the system will develop a plan for optimal scheduling of transmission of content to CPEs, often including the use of trickle downloads. The scheduling plan is based collected statistical and historical data on network resource demand to make scheduling decisions. The system allows for the shifting of bandwidth utilization from periods of high demand to those of low demand, and increased performance with regard to user experienced latency.
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Citations
56 Claims
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1-35. -35. (canceled)
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36. A method of operating a content delivery network, said method comprising:
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identifying high probability of viewership (HpoV) content; and scheduling transmission of said HpoV content to said one or more CPE during an expected period of low network demand; wherein said transmission comprises a transmission rate less than that associated with a real-time presentation of said HpoV content. - View Dependent Claims (37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47)
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48. An apparatus for management and distribution of content in a content delivery network, said apparatus comprising:
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at least one interface configured to communicate with a plurality of consumer premises equipment (CPE) operatively coupled to said content delivery network; one or more storage apparatus configured to; store a plurality of content for distribution to subsets of said plurality of CPE; store one or more rules to guide said distribution of individual ones of said plurality content; and store classification information related to said individual ones of said plurality said content; and a processing unit in data communication with said interface and said one or more storage apparatus, said processing unit configured to; based at least in part on said classification information, identify individual ones of said plurality of content that are high probability of viewership (HpoV) content for one of said subsets of said plurality of CPE; identify one or more rules to guide said distribution of said HpoV content from among said one or more rules to guide said distribution of said individual ones of said plurality said content; and schedule transmission of one or more of (i) said HpoV content and (ii) said one or more rules to guide distribution of said HpoV content to said one of said subsets of said plurality of CPE. - View Dependent Claims (49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54)
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55. A method of operating a content delivery network, said method comprising:
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identifying content with a high probability of viewership; during a period of predicted low network demand, providing said content in an incomplete form and storage rules for said content at a transmission rate less than that associated with a real-time presentation of said content, said content in said incomplete form rendered un-viewable without combination with a remaining portion of said content; when a demand for network resources peaks during said provision of said content in said incomplete form; stopping provision of said content; and rescheduling provision of said content in said incomplete form to a future time of predicted low network demand; and providing said remaining portion of said content. - View Dependent Claims (56)
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Specification