Service gateway for interactive television

• US 8,645,572 B2
• Filed: 01/26/2009
• Issued: 02/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/02/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: OpenTV, Inc. (Kudelski SA)
• Original Assignee: OpenTV, Inc. (Kudelski SA)
• Inventors: Delpuch, Alain, Dureau, Vincent, Alao, Rachad, Henrard, Jose, Huntington, Matthew, Lam, Waiman, Kidd, Taylor
• Primary Examiner(s): Kumar, Pankaj
• Assistant Examiner(s): NEWLIN, TIMOTHY R
• Application Number:
  US12/360,107
• Publication Number:
  US 20090199259A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,835 Days
• Field of Search: 725/78, 725/82, 725/80, 725/151, 725/119, 725/116, 725/149, 709/247
• US Class Current: 709/247
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/066 Format adaptation, e.g. format conversion or compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/613 for the control of the source by the destination control signals issued by the client directed to the server or network components specially adapted for selective content distribution H04N21/637
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/752 adapting media to network capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/238 Interfacing the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. adapting the transmission rate of a video stream to network bandwidth; Processing of multiplex streams hybrid fiber coaxial [HFC] networks for downstream channel allocation for video distribution H04L12/2801; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10; real-time communication protocols in data switching networks H04L65/00; scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2385 Channel allocation H04N21/266 takes precedence; Bandwidth allocation H04N21/24 takes precedence ; allocation of channels according to the instantaneous demands of the users in time-division multiplex systems H04J3/1682; admission control, resource allocation in open networks H04L12/5692; arrangements for maintenance or administration in data switching networks involving bandwidth and capacity management H04L41/0896; negotiating bandwidth in wireless networks H04W28/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2402 Monitoring of the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. bandwidth available traffic monitoring in data switching networks H04L43/00; monitoring data switching networks utilization H04L43/0876
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2542 for selling goods, e.g. TV shopping payment schemes, payment architectures or payment protocols for electronic shopping systems G06Q20/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25858 involving client software characteristics, e.g. OS identifier
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25875 involving end-user authentication restricting access to computer systems by authenticating users using a predetermined code G06F21/33; arrangements for secret or secure communication including means for verifying the identity or authority of a user of the system H04L9/32; networks authentication protocols H04L63/08; authentication in wireless network security H04W12/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25891 being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• 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 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/437 Interfacing the upstream path of the transmission network, e.g. for transmitting client requests to a VOD server flow control in data networks H04L47/10; streaming protocols, e.g. RTP or RTCP, H04L65/65; scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests in data packet switching networks H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/438 Interfacing the downstream path of the transmission network originating from a server, e.g. retrieving encoded video stream packets from an IP network
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/643 Communication protocols network streaming protocols, e.g. real-time transport protocol [RTP] or real-time control protocol [RTCP], H04L65/65
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64707 : for transferring content from a first network to a second network, e.g. between IP and wireless
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 : involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8126 : involving additional data, e.g. news, sports, stocks, weather forecasts
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 : Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8543 : using a description language, e.g. Multimedia and Hypermedia information coding Expert Group [MHEG], eXtensible Markup Language [XML] information retrieval of semistructured data, the underlying structure being taken into account, e.g. mark-up language structure data G06F16/80
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8545 : for generating interactive applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17309 : Transmission or handling of upstream communications

Abstract

A service gateway provides a proxy between a client protocol and a plurality of standard communication protocols. The service gateway provides asymmetrical routing, data compression and encryption to optimize client processing power and communication link bandwidth. The service gateway enables content translation between clients and service providers. The service gateway keeps track of client available memory and sequence numbers in messages to generate error codes when applicable. A store and forward message capability is provided along with abstract session identifiers. The service gateway supports user datagram protocol.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium containing instructions that when executed cause a computer to:

receive, from a service provider of a plurality of service providers, a first message containing at least one of application code, control data, and audio/visual data at a server in a service provider compatible protocol corresponding to the service provider;

translate the first message into a client device compatible protocol message, wherein the client device compatible protocol is different from the service provider compatible protocol;

compress the client device compatible protocol message at the server;

send the compressed client device compatible protocol message to a client device over at least one of a broadcast carrier wave and a point to point connection;

receive an uncompressed second message containing at least one of application code, control data, and audio/visual data from the client device in the client device compatible protocol;

translate the uncompressed second message into the service provider compatible protocol corresponding to the service provider;

compress the translated uncompressed second message at the server; and

send the compressed translated second message from the server to the service provider.

2. The medium of claim 1 further comprising instructions that cause the computer to store the second message for transmission upon satisfaction of a timing constraint comprising at a least one of as soon as possible, when connected, after a random period of time, after a set period of time, after the occurrence of an event, after occurrence of a message, and spread over available bandwidth.

3. The medium of claim 1 wherein the first message and second message comprise an ecommerce transaction.

4. The medium of claim 1 further comprising instructions that cause the computer to complete an ecommerce transaction between a user at the client device and the service provider when the client device is offline.

5. The medium of claim 1 further comprising instructions that cause the computer to:

send a third message to the client device requesting a quantity of memory available at the client device; and

check a message size of a fourth message directed to the client device to verify that the quantity of available memory at the client device is sufficient to receive the fourth message before forwarding the fourth message to the client device.

6. A computer implemented method for asymmetrical communication in an interactive television system, the method comprising:

receiving, from a service provider of a plurality of service providers, a first message containing at least one of application code, control data, and audio/visual data at a server in a service provider compatible protocol corresponding to the service provider;

translating the first message into a client device compatible protocol message, wherein the client device compatible protocol is different from the service provider compatible protocol;

compressing the client device compatible protocol message at the server;

sending the compressed client device compatible protocol message to a client device over at least one of a broadcast carrier wave and a point to point connection;

receiving an uncompressed second message containing at least one of application code, control data, and audio/visual data from the client device in the client device compatible protocol;

translating the uncompressed second message into the service provider compatible protocol corresponding to the service provider;

compressing the translated uncompressed second message at the server; and

sending the compressed translated second message from the server to the service provider.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising storing the second message for transmission upon satisfaction of a timing constraint comprising at a least one of as soon as possible, when connected, after a random period of time, after a set period of time, after the occurrence of an event, after occurrence of a message, and spread over available bandwidth.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein the first message and second message comprise an ecommerce transaction.

9. The method of claim 6 further comprising completing an ecommerce transaction between a user at the client device and the service provider when the client device is offline.

10. The method of claim 6 further comprising:

sending a third message to the client device requesting a quantity of memory available at the client device; and

checking a message size of a fourth message directed to the client device to verify that the quantity of available memory at the client device is sufficient to receive the fourth message before forwarding the fourth message to the client device.

11. The method of claim 6, further comprising selecting a first channel for receiving the first message at the server from the service provider, in response to determining a first delivery latency of the first channel is less than a second delivery latency of a second channel.

12. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

determining whether to send the compressed client device compatible protocol message to the client device over the broadcast carrier wave or the point to point connection based on at least one of a size of the compressed client device compatible protocol message, an urgency of the compressed client device compatible protocol message, and a number of client devices to receive the compressed client device compatible protocol message;

wherein a portion of a bandwidth of the broadcast carrier wave is allocated to the server for data transmission to a plurality of client devices including the client device.

13. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

determining whether to send the compressed client device compatible protocol message to the client device over the broadcast carrier wave or the point to point connection based on at least one of a size of the compressed client device compatible protocol message, a speed of the point to point connection, and a loading condition of the point to point connection;

wherein a portion of a bandwidth of the broadcast carrier wave is allocated to the server for data transmission to a plurality of client devices including the client device.

14. An apparatus for asymmetrical communication in an interactive television system comprising:

a server configured to;

receive, from a service provider of a plurality of service providers, a first message containing at least one of application code, control data, and audio/visual data in a service provider compatible protocol corresponding to the service provider;

translate the first message into a client device compatible protocol message, wherein the client device compatible protocol is different from the service provider compatible protocol;

compress the client device compatible protocol message;

send the compressed client device compatible protocol message to a client device over at least one of a broadcast carrier wave and a point to point connection;

receive an uncompressed second message containing at least one of application code, control data, and audio/visual data from the client device in the client device compatible protocol;

translate the uncompressed second message into the service provider compatible protocol corresponding to the service provider;

compress the translated uncompressed second message; and

send the compressed translated second message to the service provider.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the first message and second message comprise data corresponding to an ecommerce transaction.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the server is further configured to complete an ecommerce transaction between a user at the client device and the service provider when the client device is offline.

17. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the server is further configured to:

send a third message to the client device requesting a quantity of memory available at the client device; and

check a message size of a fourth message directed to the client device to verify that the quantity of available memory at the client device is sufficient to receive the fourth message before forwarding the fourth message to the client device.