Request modification for transparent capacity management in a carrier network
First Claim
1. For a carrier network that provides data access, a method for transparently managing capacity of the carrier network, the method comprising:
- from the carrier network, receiving an end user submitted request for content of a particular content provider;
identifying at least one condition parameter of the carrier network;
modifying said request when said condition parameter satisfies a threshold; and
passing said request to the particular content provider, wherein content provided by the particular content provider in response to an unmodified request consumes a first set of resources of the carrier network when passed through the carrier network, and wherein content provided by the particular content provider in response to a modified request consumes a second set of resources of the carrier network when passed through the carrier network.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Some embodiments provide a capacity management agent that modifies content requests to adjust bandwidth consumption when streaming requested content from a content provider to a requesting user. The modifications include modifying a URL or header information of the request. The agent performs a process that receives a request for content of a content provider. The process identifies a parameter of the carrier network and modifies the request when the parameter satisfies a threshold. The process passes the request to the content provider and the content provider provides content that consumes a first set of resources in response to an unmodified request and a second set of resources in response to a modified request. When the parameter identifies congestion, the first set of resources is greater than the second set of resources. When the condition parameter identifies underutilization, the first set of resources is less than the second set of resources.
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Citations
26 Claims
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1. For a carrier network that provides data access, a method for transparently managing capacity of the carrier network, the method comprising:
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from the carrier network, receiving an end user submitted request for content of a particular content provider; identifying at least one condition parameter of the carrier network; modifying said request when said condition parameter satisfies a threshold; and passing said request to the particular content provider, wherein content provided by the particular content provider in response to an unmodified request consumes a first set of resources of the carrier network when passed through the carrier network, and wherein content provided by the particular content provider in response to a modified request consumes a second set of resources of the carrier network when passed through the carrier network. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A carrier network comprising:
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a plurality of wireless service regions, each wireless service region comprising a set of resources that are used to provide wireless access to content of an external data network; at least one packet switching server for routing content requests and content between the plurality of wireless service regions and the external data network; and a capacity management agent (i) for identifying usage of the sets of resources and (ii) for modifying at least one of a URL and a header of a content request that is routed from a particular wireless service region to the external data network when the set of resources at the particular wireless service region satisfies a threshold. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A capacity management agent comprising:
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a network interface (i) for receiving a content request that is sent from a carrier network to a content provider in an external data network and (ii) for receiving condition parameters that identify available capacity of the carrier network; a rules engine (i) for identifying a set of content providers of the external data network that support modification to a content request and (ii) for each content provider of the set of content providers, identifying at least one supported content request modification; and a processor for modifying the content request using a modification that is supported by the content provider when (i) the content provider is identified in the set of content providers and (ii) available capacity of the carrier network satisfies a threshold. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26)
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Specification