Delivery of network services

• US 8,249,615 B2
• Filed: 01/02/2003
• Issued: 08/21/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Shaw, Venson M, Holmes, David W., Leuca, Ileana A
• Primary Examiner(s): SAMS, MATTHEW C
• Application Number:
  US10/336,229
• Publication Number:
  US 20040203759A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,519 Days
• Field of Search: 4554561-4566, 4554321-4323, 455/433, 4554561-457, 370/252, 370/351, 370/310, 705/37, 705/1.1, 705 711- 722
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/18 Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/22 Processing or transfer of terminal data, e.g. status or physical capabilities

Abstract

A network includes user information comprising terminal capabilities and readiness information for a terminal device. A network element receives the terminal capabilities and readiness information from the terminal device and communicates the terminal capabilities and readiness information such that it is received and stored. The information is accessed to set media delivery parameters for the terminal device.

Claims

1. A method of delivering media according to location from two or more media providers, comprising:

storing location information on a memory for two terminal devices, a first terminal device and a second terminal device, wherein the terminal devices are used by a single user;

setting media delivery parameters on the memory for the terminal devices according to the location information, wherein media delivery parameters are at least one of the frame rate, compression ratio, and frame size of media to deliver to the terminal devices;

dynamically selecting on the memory a first media provider from the two or more media providers based upon bids provided by the two or more media providers, wherein the two or more media providers are capable of delivering a media according to the media delivery parameters, the media delivery parameters dynamically changing due to changing communication conditions between the terminal devices and a network delivering the media to the terminal devices, the bids are solicited from the two or more media providers based upon the dynamic capability of the two or more media providers to deliver the media according to the media delivery parameters;

forming a service contract with the first media provider on the memory according to a bid of the media provider;

dynamically updating readiness information on the memory, presence information, and terminal capabilities for the two terminal devices, the terminal capabilities identifying which of the terminal devices is currently in use;

dynamically selecting a second media provider from the two or more media providers on the memory based upon bids provided by the two or more media providers upon a change in the terminal employed by the user; and

applying the readiness information, presence information, and the terminal capabilities on the memory to determine if and how to deliver the media to the terminal device currently in use from the media provider.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining, according to the location information, quality of service for delivery of media to the terminal devices.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

storing media delivery preferences for the user of the terminal devices; and

setting, according to both the media delivery preferences and the location information, at least one of the frame rate, compression ratio, and frame size of media to deliver to the terminal devices.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

updating the location information to reflect one or more new locations of the terminal devices.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein storing location information for the two terminal devices further comprises:

storing literal location information of the terminal devices.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein storing location information for the two terminal devices further comprises:

storing logical location information.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

organizing terminal device capabilities for one or more terminal devices into templates for one or more classes of devices; and

comparing service requirements with the templates to determine one or more services compatible with the terminal devices.

7. A method comprising:

dynamically selecting on a memory a first service provider from two or more service providers based upon bids provided by the two or more service providers, wherein the two or more service providers are capable of delivering a media according to media delivery parameters for a user, the media delivery parameters dynamically changing due to changing communication conditions between two terminal devices and a network delivering the media to the two terminal devices, the bids are solicited from the two or more service providers based upon the dynamic capability of the two or more service providers to deliver the media according to the media delivery parameters;

forming a service contract with the first service provider on the memory according to a bid of the service provider;

dynamically updating readiness information, presence information, and terminal capabilities on the memory for the two terminal devices, the readiness information, the presence information, and the terminal capabilities stored by one or more network elements, the terminal capabilities identifying which of the terminal devices is currently in use;

dynamically selecting a second service provider from the two or more service providers on the memory based upon bids provided by the two or more service providers upon a change in the terminal employed by the user; and

applying the readiness information, the presence information, and the terminal capabilities on the memory to determine if and how to deliver services to the terminal devices from the service provider.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

the terminal devices providing automatic updates of the readiness and/or presence information to the network elements.

9. A cell phone comprising:

logic on a memory to maintain readiness and presence information;

logic on the memory to communicate changes in the readiness and presence information to a network;

logic on the memory to dynamically select a first service provider from two or more service providers based upon bids provided by the two or more service providers, wherein the two or more service providers are capable of delivering a media according to media delivery parameters for a user, the media delivery parameters dynamically changing due to changing communication conditions between the cell phone and the network, the bids are solicited from the two or more service providers based upon the dynamic capability of the two or more service providers to deliver the media according to the media delivery parameters;

logic on the memory to form a service contract with the first service provider according to a bid of the service provider;

logic on the memory to dynamically update readiness information, presence information, and terminal capabilities for the cell phone, the terminal capabilities identifying which of the terminal devices is currently in use;

logic on the memory to dynamically select a second service provider from the two or more service providers based upon bids provided by the two or more service providers upon a change in the terminal employed by the user; and

logic on the memory to apply the readiness and presence information to determine if and how to deliver the media.

10. The cell phone of claim 9 further comprising:

a location system; and

logic on the memory to communicate location information from the location system to the network.

11. A network comprising:

logic on a memory to dynamically update stored readiness information and stored presence information for two terminal devices, a first terminal device and a second terminal device, wherein the terminal devices are used by a single user;

logic on the memory to dynamically select a first service provider from two or more service providers based upon bids provided by the two or more service providers, wherein the two or more service providers are capable of delivering a media according to media delivery parameters for the user, the media delivery parameters dynamically changing due to changing communication conditions between the one or more terminal devices and the network, the bids are solicited from the two or more service providers based upon the dynamic capability of the two or more service providers to deliver the media according to the media delivery parameters;

logic on the memory to form a service contract with the first service provider according to a bid of the service provider;

logic on the memory to apply the readiness information, the presence information, and the terminal capabilities to determine if and how to deliver services to the terminal devices from the service provider, the terminal capabilities identifying which of the terminal devices is currently in use; and

logic on the memory to dynamically select a second service provider from the two or more service providers based upon bids provided by the two or more service providers upon a change in the terminal employed by the user.

12. The network of claim 11 further comprising:

logic to select the service provider to service the terminal devices at least in part according to a comparison of terminal capabilities of the terminal devices and service requirements.

13. A method comprising:

organizing on a memory terminal device capabilities for two or more terminal devices into categories;

organizing on the memory service requirements for one or more service providers into categories;

comparing on the memory categories of the terminal device capabilities with categories of the service requirements to determine one or more services compatible with the terminal devices;

dynamically selecting on the memory a first service provider from the one or more service providers based upon bids provided by the one or more service providers;

forming a service contract with the first service provider according to a bid of the service provider;

dynamically updating on the memory readiness information, presence information, and terminal capabilities for the two or more terminal devices, the terminal capabilities identifying which of the terminal devices is currently in use;

dynamically selecting on the memory a second service provider from the two or more service providers based upon bids provided by the two or more service providers upon a change in the terminal employed by the user; and

applying on the memory the readiness information and presence information to determine if and how to deliver the media to the two or more terminal devices from the service provider,

wherein the two or more service providers are capable of delivering the one or more services compatible with the terminal devices according to service delivery parameters for a single user of the terminal devices, the bids are solicited from the two or more service providers based upon the dynamic capability of the two or more service providers to deliver the service according to the service delivery parameters, the media delivery parameters dynamically changing due to changing communication conditions between the one or more terminal devices and a network delivering the service to the one or more terminal devices.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

discontinuing the current service provider for the two or more terminal devices of the user, and enabling one or more different service providers providing compatible services for one or more newly active terminal devices of the user.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein organizing terminal device capabilities for the two or more terminal devices into categories further comprises:

organizing the terminal device capabilities into categories corresponding to subsystems of the terminal devices.