Distribution of content and advertisement

• US 7,761,900 B2
• Filed: 07/30/2007
• Issued: 07/20/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/02/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Clarendon Foundation (Cheshire Homes) Inc
• Original Assignee: Clarendon Foundation (Cheshire Homes) Inc
• Inventors: Crayford, Aaron
• Primary Examiner(s): Huynh; Son P
• Application Number:
  US11/830,824
• Publication Number:
  US 20080034393A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,086 Days
• Field of Search: 725 86- 91, 709223-224
• US Class Current: 725/87
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/231 Content storage operation, e.g. caching movies for short term storage, replicating data over plural servers, prioritizing data for deletion
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25841 involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; arrangements for identifying locations of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/51; location of the user terminal in data switching networks H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2668 Creating a channel for a dedicated end-user group, e.g. insertion of targeted commercials based on end-user profiles information retrieval from the Internet by querying with filtering and personalisation G06F16/9535; arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast H04H20/10; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; adaptation of message content in packet-switching networks H04L51/063
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4524 involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; systems specially adapted for using geographical information in broadcast systems H04H60/70; protocols in which the network application is adapted for the location of the user terminal in communication control or processing H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a system and method for improved distribution of content on a communication network. The system and method are adapted to receive a video request message from a client, identify a location of the client, identify a location of one or more overlay nodes nearest to the client, identify a location of one or more network servers nearest to the client, generate network organization information, and publish the network organization information to at least the client.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

identifying, using a processor, a location of the a client device in response to a video request message received from the client device, wherein identifying the location of the client device comprises;

pinging a number of overlay nodes; and

determining the location of the client device to be the same as a location of an overlay node with a quickest ping response of the number of overlay nodes pinged;

identifying, using said processor, a location of one or more overlay nodes nearest to the client device;

generating network organization information including identification of said nearest overlay nodes; and

publishing the network organization information to the client device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining whether the received video request message is a first video request message from the client device.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising installing a service module on the client device if the received video request message is the first video request message.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the overlay nodes comprises a second client device for issuing a video request message.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising streaming a first portion of requested video data to the client device for viewing by a user of the client device.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising performing a subsection algorithm on the requested video data to separate the video data into a plurality of subsection portions so that one or more remaining subsection portions of the video data are streamed to the client device from at least two different nodes.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the subsection portions of the video are streamed to the client device in optimal order so that the video is viewed by the user in an uninterrupted manner, and wherein the optimal order is based on at least one of an available bandwidth of the client device, download speed capability of the client device, and available bitrate range of the client device.

8. The method of claim 1, in which the client device selectively accesses one or more of the overlay nodes without using a Domain Name Service (DNS) or Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) redirects.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein generating network organization information comprises identifying some overlay nodes at random without reference to proximity to the client device in addition to the overlay nodes nearest the client device to increase diversity of overlay node access by the client device.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein generating network organization information comprises:

identifying infrastructure nodes in addition to the overlay nodes; and

delivering video to the client device in response to a video request message using both overlay streaming and infrastructure streaming.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying an overload condition of resource contention between the nodes.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying a location of one or more network servers in the network nearest to the client device.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying one or more interests of a user of the client device;

obtaining an advertisement related to the one or more interests of the user;

interrupting a video stream to the client device at an interrupt point to stream the advertisement to the client device; and

continuing streaming of the video stream to the client device.

14. A system comprising:

a processor;

a computer readable medium in the form of a volatile or non-volatile media on which are stored computer readable instructions which, when executed by the processor, causes said processor to;

identify a location of a client device in response to a video request message received from the client device, wherein identify a location of the client device comprises;

pinging a number of overlay nodes; and

determining the location of the client device to be the same as a location of an overlay node with a quickest ping response of the number of overlay nodes pinged;

identify a location of one or more overlay nodes nearest to the client device;

generate network topology information including identification of said nearest overlay nodes; and

publish the network topology information to the client device.

15. The system of claim 14, in which the network topology information allows the client device to stream video from any of said overlay nodes without using a Domain Name Service (DNS) or Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) redirects.

16. The system of claim 14, in which at least one of the overlay nodes comprises a second client device for issuing video request message.

17. The system of claim 14, in which said stored computer readable instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the processor to perform a subsection algorithm on requested video data identified by the video request message so as to separate the requested video data into a plurality of subsection portions so that one or more remaining subsection portions of the requested video data are streamed to the client device from at least two different overlay nodes.

18. The system of claim 14, in which generating network topology information comprises identifying some overlay nodes at random without reference to proximity to the client device in addition to the overlay nodes nearest the client device to increase diversity of overlay node access by the client device.

19. The system of claim 14, in which said stored computer readable instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the processor to:

identify one or more interests of a user of the client device;

obtain an advertisement related to the one or more interests of the user;

interrupt a video stream to the client device at an interrupt point to stream the advertisement to the client device; and

continue streaming of the video stream to the client device.