Autonomous-Mode Content Delivery and Key Management

• US 20160127895A1
• Filed: 10/31/2014
• Published: 05/05/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Gogo Business Aviation LLC (GOGO Incorporated), Sorenson Communications Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Gogo LLC (GOGO Incorporated)
• Inventors: Bangole, Premkumar, Lauer, Bryan Adrian, Walsh, Patrick J., Wang, Kathy
• Granted Patent: US 9,426,650 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/30 Authentication, i.e. establishing the identity or authorisation of security principals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/60 Digital content management, e.g. content distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/76 Proxy, i.e. using intermediary entity to perform cryptographic operations network architectures or network communication protocols using hop-by-hop encryption H04L63/0464
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/84 Vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/06 for supporting key management in a packet data network cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for key management H04L9/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/062 for key distribution, e.g. centrally by trusted party cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for key distribution involving a central third party H04L9/0819
• 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 9/083 involving central third party, e.g. key distribution center [KDC] or trusted third party [TTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/041 Key generation or derivation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/0431 Key distribution or pre-distribution; Key agreement
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/084 using delegated authorisation, e.g. open authorisation [OAuth] protocol
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/46 for vehicle-to-vehicle communication [V2V]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/48 for in-vehicle communication

Abstract

Multimedia content may be delivered to content consumer devices via a content-delivery network. Encrypted content and cryptography keys for decrypting the content may be distributed from a data center to various nodes of the content-delivery network, each node acting as a semi-independent content-delivery system. Each content-delivery system is capable of delivering received content to end-users and implementing a key-management scheme to facilitate secure content-delivery and usage tracking, even when the content-delivery system is disconnected from the data center. In other words, the disclosed systems and methods facilitate the operation of nodes which may operate in “autonomous mode” when disconnected from a larger content-delivery network, thus maintaining content-delivery capabilities despite having little if any connectivity to external networks.

Claims

1. A system for providing an in-vehicle content-delivery service to a mobile consumer device, the system comprising:

a data center including a license server configured to provide one or more keys, from a key-store, for decrypting encrypted content; and

a first content-delivery system (“

CDS”

) disposed at a first vehicle, the first CDS including;

one or more memory devices storing a content-distribution, from the data center, including;

a first set of keys from the key-store for decrypting a first collection of encrypted content; and

a first proxy license server configured to;

(i) determine whether license-data, stored at a memory of the first CDS, authorizes delivery, of first content-data from the first collection of encrypted content, responsive to a content-request received at the first CDS,

the content-request received at the first CDS having been transmitted from a first mobile consumer device communicatively coupled to the first CDS,

(ii) when the license-data authorizes delivery of the first content-data;

transmit, for reception by the first mobile consumer device, a key from the first set of keys for decrypting the first content-data.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a second CDS disposed at a second vehicle, the second CDS including:

one or more memory devices storing a content-distribution, from the data center, including;

a second set of keys from the key-store for decrypting a second collection of encrypted content; and

a second proxy license server configured to;

(i) determine whether license-data, stored at a memory of the second CDS, authorizes delivery, of second content-data from the second collection of encrypted content, responsive to a content-request received at the second CDS,

the content-request received at the second CDS having been transmitted from a second mobile consumer device communicatively coupled to the second CDS; and

(ii) when the license-data authorizes delivery of the second content-data;

transmit, for reception by the second mobile consumer device, a key from the second set of keys for decrypting the second content-data.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the keys from the key-store are unique relative to other keys from the key-store.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the first CDS further includes a dedicated distribution server configured to deliver the first content-data for reception by the first mobile consumer device.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the first proxy license server is further configured to:

when (i) the license-data does not authorize delivery of the first content-data, and (ii) a communication link enables communication with the license server;

transmit, for reception by the license server, a request for a key for decrypting the first content-data;

wherein when a key for decrypting the first content-data is received at the CDS from the license server, the key is transmitted to the mobile consumer device.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the first proxy license server is further configured to authorize content delivery without communicating with the license server, wherein the first proxy license server is further configured to:

when the license-data does not authorize delivery of the first content-data;

update the license-data to authorize delivery of the first content-data; and

transmit, for reception by the first mobile consumer device, a key from the first set of keys for decrypting the first content-data.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the first proxy license server is further configured to:

receive payment information from the first mobile consumer device;

wherein updating the license-data to authorize delivery of the first content-data occurs in response to receiving the payment information from the first mobile consumer device.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the first proxy license server is further configured to:

transmit the payment information to the license server; and

wherein the first CDS is configured to receive a verification, from the license server, indicating whether a financial transaction successfully occurred based on the payment information.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the first CDS is further configured to:

stop delivery of the first content-data when the verification indicates that a financial transaction based on the payment information was not successful.

10. The system of claim 2, wherein:

the first CDS is configured to transmit, for reception by the license server, a report so that the license server may track the content-delivery by the first CDS of the first content-data; and

the second CDS is configured to transmit, for reception by the license server, a report so that the license server may track the content-delivery by the second CDS of the second content-data.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the content-request received at the first CDS includes (i) an identity or a reference associated with the identity, the identity being a user ID or a device ID, and (ii) a content-identifier;

wherein determining whether license-data authorizes delivery of first content-data includes;

determining whether the license-data includes an authorization-status associated with the identity; and

identifying, based on the content-identifier, the first content-data from the first collection of encrypted content.

12. A computer-implemented method for providing an in-vehicle content-delivery service to a mobile consumer device, the method comprising:

receiving, at a first content-delivery system (“

CDS”

) disposed at a first vehicle, a content-distribution including a first set of keys from a key-store managed by a license server, the first set of keys for decrypting a first collection of encrypted content;

storing the content-distribution to a memory of the first CDS;

receiving, at the first CDS, a first content-request transmitted from a first mobile consumer device communicatively coupled to the first CDS;

causing a processor of the first CDS to determine whether license-data stored at a memory of the first CDS authorizes delivery, of first content-data from the first collection of encrypted content, responsive to the first content-request;

when the processor determines that the license-data authorizes the delivery of the first content-data;

transmitting for reception by the first mobile consumer device, via a communication interface of the first CDS, a key from the first set of keys for decrypting the first content-data.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving, at a second content-delivery system (“

CDS”

) disposed at a second vehicle, a content-distribution including a second set of keys from the key-store managed by the license server, the second set of keys for decrypting a second collection of encrypted content;

storing the content-distribution to a memory of the second CDS;

receiving, at the second CDS, a content-request transmitted from a second mobile consumer device communicatively coupled to the second CDS;

causing a processor of the second CDS to determine whether license-data stored at a memory of the second CDS authorizes delivery, of second content-data from the second collection of encrypted content, responsive to the second content-request; and

when the processor determines that the license-data authorizes the delivery of the second content-data;

transmitting for reception by the second mobile consumer device, via a communication interface of the second CDS, a key from the second set of keys for decrypting the second content-data.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

when the processor determines that the license-data authorizes the delivery of the second content-data, transmitting the second content-data for reception by the second mobile consumer device.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

when (i) the license-data does not authorize delivery of the first content-data, and (ii) a communication link enables communication with the license server;

transmitting, for reception by the license server, a request for a key for decrypting the first content-data;

wherein when a key for decrypting the first content-data is received at the CDS from the license server, the key is transmitted to the mobile consumer device.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

when (i) the license-data does not authorize the delivery of the first content-data, and (ii) the first CDS is not in communication with the license server;

updating the license-data to authorize delivery of the first content-data; and

transmitting, for reception by the first mobile consumer device, a key from the first set of keys for decrypting the first content-data.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

receiving, at the first CDS, payment information from the first mobile consumer device;

wherein updating the license-data to authorize the delivery of the first content-data occurs in response to the first CDS receiving the payment information from the first mobile consumer device.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

transmitting the received payment information to the license server; and

receiving, at the first CDS, a verification from the license server indicating whether a financial transaction successfully occurred based on the payment information.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

stopping delivery of the first content-data when the verification indicates that a financial transaction based on the payment information was not successful.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein receiving, at the first CDS, a first content-request transmitted from a first mobile consumer device communicatively coupled to the first CDS, comprises performing a first step, performing a second step, or performing both the first step and the second step,

the first step including:

receiving, at the first CDS, an identity or a reference associated with the identity, the identity being a user ID or a device ID; and

wherein causing a processor of the first CDS to determine whether license-data stored at a memory of the first CDS authorizes the delivery of first content-data, comprises;

determining whether the license-data includes an authorization-status associated with the identity; and

the second step including;

receiving, at the first CDS, a content-identifier;

identifying, based on the content-identifier, the first content-data from the first collection of encrypted content;

identifying, based on the identified first content-data, the key from the first set of keys for decrypting the first content-data; and

when the processor determines that the license-data authorizes the delivery of the first content-data;

transmitting the first content-data for reception by the mobile consumer device.