Method and system for controlling content distribution, related network and computer program product therefor

• US 8,468,229 B2
• Filed: 03/31/2004
• Issued: 06/18/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telecom Italia S.p.A.
• Original Assignee: Telecom Italia S.p.A.
• Inventors: Alessi, Marzio, Maffione, Eugenio Maria
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Ashokkumar B.
• Assistant Examiner(s): EDWARDS, LINGLAN E
• Application Number:
  US10/594,310
• Publication Number:
  US 20070162434A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,366 Days
• Field of Search: 709/213, 709/201, 709/203, 709217-219, 709231-232, 707/706, 707/966, 707/999.01
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/50 Network service management, e.g. ensuring proper service fulfilment according to agreements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/288 Distributed intermediate devices, i.e. intermediate devices for interaction with other intermediate devices on the same level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5682 Policies or rules for updating, deleting or replacing the stored data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A method for controlling distribution of media contents over a network is provided, wherein the contents are distributed contents available at surrogate servers and remaining contents that are not available at the surrogate servers. The method includes identifying contents eligible for distribution from the remaining contents; defining a set of categories; identifying for each category at least a reference content; associating the identified contents with the predefined categories based on semantics affinity with the reference content, the semantics affinity being calculated as the distance of each of the identified contents to the at least a reference content; selecting at least one of the predefined categories; and making at least one of the identified contents associated with the selected predefined category available for distribution at the surrogate servers.

Claims

1. A method implemented by a control system for controlling distribution of media contents over a network of an operator, wherein said contents comprise distributed contents to surrogate servers and remaining contents that have not been distributed to the surrogate servers, comprising the steps of:

identifying, by the operator, additional contents that are not distributed over the network yet;

dynamically retrieving a set of semantics from the distributed contents as a set of categories;

automatically identifying, for each category, at least a reference content by analyzing meta data of the media contents, wherein said identifying comprises identifying a set of reference contents by using search engines and calculating a central reference content of said set of reference contents;

associating, by the control system, said identified contents with said predefined categories based on semantics affinity with said reference content, said semantics affinity being calculated as the distance of each of said identified contents to said reference content, wherein said calculating comprises using data mining or artificial intelligence mechanisms;

determining, by the control system, an interest value for each category based on statistical data indicative of user interest in the distributed contents associated with the respective category;

receiving an input of a first interest threshold and a second interest threshold greater than the first interest threshold;

identifying, by the control system, at least one first category and at least one second category, from said set of categories, when the distributed contents associated with the first category have an interest value below the first interest threshold and the distributed contents associated with the second category have an interest value that exceeds the second interest threshold;

removing the distributed contents associated with the first category from the surrogate servers; and

making at least one of the identified contents associated with said second category available for distribution at the surrogate servers.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said mechanisms comprise at least a mechanism selected from neural networks, fuzzy logic and decision trees.

3. The method according to claim 1, comprising the steps of:

storing the classification of said distributed contents in a first database; and

storing the classification of said identified contents in a second database.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein said step of identifying at least one second category comprises the steps of:

defining the second interest threshold to be representative at least of a frequency of user requests for a given distributed content; and

extracting from said first database category information comprising at least one identified second category associated with said distributed content when said second interest threshold is exceeded.

5. The method according to claim 3, wherein said step of making at least one of the identified contents associated with said second category available for distribution at said surrogate servers comprises the step of:

extracting from said second database contents information related to said at least one identified content.

6. The method according to claim 3 comprising the steps of:

identifying additional information comprising at least usage information provided by said surrogate servers;

matching said additional information with said category information provided by said first database;

generating at least one class template comprising said matched information;

adding to said class template said contents information provided by said second database; and

forwarding said at least one modified class template to a distribution system.

7. The method according to claim 6 wherein said step of adding to said class template said contents information provided by said second database comprises the steps of:

accessing a class template repository; and

modifying said class template according to said content information

8. A non-transitory computer readable medium encoded with a computer program product loadable into a memory of at least one computer, the computer program product comprising software code portions for performing the method of claim 1.