Content push service

• US 8,271,683 B2
• Filed: 03/21/2008
• Issued: 09/18/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation, National Research Foundation Of Korea
• Original Assignee: Institute For Information Technology Advancement, International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Munson, Jonathan P., Ju Tak, Young
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Haresh N
• Assistant Examiner(s): LE, CHAU D
• Application Number:
  US12/052,843
• Publication Number:
  US 20090240807A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,642 Days
• Field of Search: 709/240, 709/238
• US Class Current: 709/240
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services

Abstract

A method, system and computer program product for pushing contents to client devices is disclosed. The method, system, and computer program product handles group pushes, manages different content priorities, prevents one content push from starving others, and handles different transport mechanisms for different clients.

Claims

1. A system for managing multiple services that pushes contents over a wireless network to client devices comprising:

a computing system with a microprocessor and memory;

a content receiver unit, implemented by the computing system, for receiving the contents from multiple application service providers, the contents having an associated priority parameter and an associated QoS (Quality-of-Service) parameter, the associated priority parameter indicating priority levels associated with delivering the contents, the associated QoS parameter indicating a quality associated with the delivering the contents, and the priority parameter has greater weight in determining the priority levels associated with the deliveries of the contents than the QoS parameter;

the multiple application service providers specifying a group of the client devices and specifying an order in which the contents are delivered to the group, and prior to the delivering the contents to the group, modifying the priority levels associated with the delivering the contents by adjusting the associated priority parameter;

a group handler unit, implemented by the computing system, for identifying members of the group of the client devices;

a series handler unit, implemented by the computing system, for ensuring that the contents are delivered to each identified member of the group in the order specified by the multiple application service providers;

a content dispatcher unit, implemented by the computing system, for determining content senders, enqueuing the contents at the content senders according to the modified priority levels, and activating the content senders to deliver the contents, according to the modified priority levels, to each identified member of the group in the specified order; and

the content senders, implemented by the computing system, for aggregating the enqueued contents for the delivery according to the modified priority levels in the specified order and performing the delivery of data of the aggregated contents, according to the modified priority levels, to each identified member of the group over a wireless communication channel.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the content sender comprising:

a queuer unit, implemented by the computing system, for checking the modified priority levels associated with the delivering the contents, customer level of the client devices and dequeue policy of the contents;

a plurality of queues for supporting diverse priority levels;

a dequeuer unit, implemented by the computing system, for managing the queues based on a scheduling algorithm that prevents starvation of low-priority queues; and

a network transport unit, implemented by the computing system, for handling different transport mechanisms for different client devices.

3. The system according to claim 2, wherein the content sender further comprising:

a queue policy unit, implemented by the computing system, for storing data related to policy, said data comprising one or more of;

what is the level of a particular customer and how long a content can stay in a queue before it is dequeued.

4. The system according to claim 2 further comprising:

a content push agent, implemented by the computing system, for pulling the contents from the network transport unit and sending acknowledge receipt to the network transport unit;

a content manager, implemented by the computing system, for receiving the contents from the content push agent and storing received contents in a queue; and

a content viewers, implemented by the computing system, for receiving the contents from the content manager and providing the contents to users.

5. The system according to according to claim 2, wherein the plurality of queues have two priority levels.

6. The system according to claim 2, wherein if a content is bigger than a maximum unit size fixed by a system administrator, the content is divided into smaller pieces and sent one piece at a time.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein a content sender represents a client device.

8. The system according to claim 1, wherein the contents are pushed to client devices according to a schedule of time or event.

9. The system according to claim 1, wherein the contents are delivered from the multiple application service providers to the content receiver unit through messages.

10. The system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a series buffer unit for keeping contents until all contents in a series arrives.

11. The method for managing multiple services that pushes contents over a wireless network to client devices comprising:

receiving the contents from multiple application service providers, the contents having an associated priority parameter and an associated QoS (Quality-of-Service) parameter, the associated priority parameter indicating priority levels associated with delivering the contents, the associated QoS parameter indicating a quality associated with the delivering the contents, and the priority parameter has greater weight in determining the priority levels associated with the deliveries of the contents than the QoS parameter;

specifying a group of the client devices;

specifying an order in which the contents are delivered to the group;

prior to the delivering the contents to the group, modifying the priority levels associated with the delivering the contents by adjusting the associated priority parameter;

identifying members of the group of the client device;

ensuring the contents are delivered to each identified member of the group in the order specified by the multiple application service providers;

maintaining a list of content senders;

enqueuing the contents at the content senders according to the modified priority levels;

activating the content senders to deliver, according to the modified priority levels, the contents to each identified member of the group in the specified order;

aggregating, at the activated content senders, the enqueued contents for the delivery according to the modified priority levels in the specified order; and

performing, at the activated content senders, the delivery of data of the aggregated contents, according to the modified priority levels, to each identified member of the group over a wireless communication channel.

12. The method according to claim 11, further comprising:

allowing the multiple application service providers to define a group; and

maintaining a list of the client devices.

13. The method according to claim 11, further comprising:

checking the modified priority levels associated with the delivering the contents, customer level of the client devices and dequeue policy of the contents;

providing a plurality of queues that support diverse priority levels associated the deliveries of the contents; and

providing a scheduling algorithm that prevents starvation of low-priority queues.

14. The method according to claim 11, wherein the step of performing transport of data of the contents to client devices is performed based on different transport mechanisms for different client devices.

15. The method according to claim 11, further comprising:

pushing the contents to the each member of the group according to a schedule of time or event.

16. The method according to claim 11, wherein if a content is bigger than a maximum unit size fixed by a system administrator, the content is divided into smaller pieces and pushed one piece at a time.

17. A computer program product comprising computer storage device having computer readable program code means embodied therein for enabling a computer to push contents to client devices, the computer program code means in said computer program product comprising computer readable program code means for causing a computer to effect functions of:

receiving the contents from multiple application service providers, the contents having an associated priority parameter and an associated QoS (Quality-of-Service) parameter, the associated priority parameter indicating priority levels associated with delivering the contents, the associated QoS parameter indicating a quality associated with the delivering the contents, and the priority parameter has greater weight in determining the priority levels associated with the deliveries of the contents than the QoS parameter;

specifying a group of the client devices;

specifying an order in which the contents are delivered to the group;

prior to the delivering the contents to the group, modifying the priority levels associated with the delivering the contents by adjusting the associated priority parameter;

identifying members of the group of the client device;

ensuring the contents are delivered to each identified member of the group in the order specified by the multiple application service providers;

maintaining a list of content senders;

enqueuing the contents at the content senders according to the modified priority levels;

activating the content senders to deliver, according to the modified priority levels, the contents to each identified member of the group in the specified order;

aggregating, at the activated content senders, the enqueued contents for the delivery according to the modified priority levels in the specified order; and

performing, at the activated content senders, the delivery of data of the aggregated contents, according to the modified priority levels, to each identified member of the group over a wireless communication channel.

18. The computer program product according to claim 17, wherein the method further comprises:

checking the modified priority levels associated with the delivering the contents, customer level of the group of the client devices and dequeue policy of the contents;

providing a plurality of queues to enqueue the contents according to the modified priority levels;

providing a scheduling algorithm that prevents starvation of low-priority queues; and

wherein if data of the aggregated contents is bigger than a maximum unit size fixed by a system administrator, the data of the aggregated contents is divided into small pieces and transported to the group of the client devices.