Pre-fetching of assets to user equipment

• US 8,725,128 B2
• Filed: 12/10/2010
• Issued: 05/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Akhtar, Shahid, Laine, Philippe
• Primary Examiner(s): Appiah, Charles
• Assistant Examiner(s): HOLLIDAY, JAIME MICHELE
• Application Number:
  US12/964,923
• Publication Number:
  US 20120149346A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,250 Days
• Field of Search: 4554141-4144
• US Class Current: 455/414.2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/289 Intermediate processing functionally located close to the data consumer application, e.g. in same machine, in same home or in same sub-network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5681 Pre-fetching or pre-delivering data based on network characteristics
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/06 Optimizing the usage of the radio link, e.g. header compression, information sizing , discarding information system modifying transmission characteristic according to link quality by modifying frame length H04L1/0007; dynamic adaptation of the packet size for flow control or congestion control H04L47/365
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/20 Negotiating bandwidth
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/26 Resource reservation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/04 Wireless resource allocation

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for pre-fetching assets from content providers to user equipment (UE). In one embodiment, the UE initiates a pre-fetch operation to download assets from content providers in advance of an end user requesting the assets. The UE accesses a resource profile for the pre-fetch operation that indicates the content providers that have assets for the UE to download in advance for local storage on the UE, and defines a percentage of UE resources allocated to each of the content providers for downloading the assets during the pre-fetch operation. The UE may then download the assets from the content providers based on the resource profile, and store the assets in a local memory.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

User Equipment (UE) of an end user, the UE having a control system operable to initiate a pre-fetch operation to download assets from content providers in advance of the end user requesting the assets through the UE, wherein the assets comprise content downloadable from content servers of the content providers to the UE for viewing by the end user;

the control system further operable to access a resource profile for the pre-fetch operation that indicates the content providers that have the assets for the UE to download in advance for local storage on the UE, and defines a percentage of UE resources allocated to each of the content providers for downloading the assets during the pre-fetch operation;

the control system further operable to download the assets from the content providers based on the resource profile, and store the assets in a memory of the UE,

wherein the control system is further operable to generate a rating for each of the assets based on at least one of;

the number of times the asset was requested during the time period, the length of time the asset was accessed by the end user during the time period, and the time between when the asset was downloaded and when it was accessed by the user, and to adjust the percentages of the UE resources in the resource profile based on the ratings for the assets to generate an updated resource profile for use in a subsequent pre-fetch operation.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein:

after the pre-fetch operation, the control system is further operable to receive a request for an asset from the end user, and to determine if the requested asset was downloaded in advance in the pre-fetch operation;

the control system is further operable to retrieve the requested asset from the memory responsive to a determination that the requested asset was downloaded in advance; and

the control system is further operable to retrieve the requested asset from the content provider over a mobile network responsive to a determination that the requested asset was not downloaded in advance.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein:

the control system is further operable to monitor multiple requests for assets from the end user over a time period.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein:

the control system is further operable to store the assets in the memory, and to generate a list of asset pointers to point to the copy of the assets stored locally in the memory.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the percentage of UE resources allocated to each of the content providers comprises one of:

the percentage of UE download time allocated to each of the content providers for downloading assets from the content providers during the pre-fetch operation; and

the percentage of memory allocated to each of the content providers for downloading assets from the content providers during the pre-fetch operation.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the UE further comprises:

a monitoring system operable to monitor access networks available to the UE, to determine if a broadband network is available to the UE, and to trigger the pre-fetch operation responsive to the broadband network being available.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein:

the resource profile has minimum percentage defined for each asset type or sub-type.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein:

the control system is further operable to send authentication information to the content providers before downloading the assets during the pre-fetch operation.

9. A method performed in User Equipment (UE) of an end user, the method comprising:

initiating a pre-fetch operation in the UE to download assets from content providers in advance of the end user requesting the assets through the UE, wherein the assets comprise content downloadable from content servers of the content providers to the UE for viewing by the end user;

accessing a resource profile for the pre-fetch operation that indicates the content providers that have the assets for the UE to download in advance for local storage on the UE, and defines a percentage of UE resources allocated to each of the content providers for downloading the assets during the pre-fetch operation;

downloading the assets from the content providers to the UE based on the resource profile;

storing the assets in a memory of the UE;

generating a rating for each of the requested assets based on at least one of;

the number of times the asset was requested during the time period, the length of time the asset was accessed by the end user during the time period, and the time between when the asset was downloaded and when it was accessed by the user; and

adjusting the percentages of the UE resources in the resource profile based on the ratings for the assets to generate an updated resource profile for use in a subsequent pre-fetch operation.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein after the pre-fetch operation, the method further comprises:

receiving a request for an asset from the end user into the UE;

determining, in the UE, if the requested asset was downloaded in advance in the pre-fetch operation;

retrieving the requested asset from the memory of the UE responsive to a determination that the requested asset was downloaded in advance; and

retrieving the requested asset from the content provider over a mobile network responsive to a determination that the requested asset was not downloaded in advance.

11. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

monitoring multiple requests for assets from the end user over a time period.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein storing the assets in a memory of the UE comprises:

generating a list of asset pointers to point to the copy of the assets stored locally in the memory.

13. The method of claim 9 wherein the percentage of UE resources allocated to each of the content providers comprises one of:

the percentage of UE download time allocated to each of the content providers for downloading assets from the content providers during the pre-fetch operation; and

the percentage of memory allocated to each of the content providers for downloading assets from the content providers during the pre-fetch operation.

14. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

monitoring access networks available to the UE;

determining if a broadband network is available to the UE; and

triggering the pre-fetch operation responsive to the broadband network being available.

15. The method of claim 9 wherein:

the resource profile has minimum percentage defined for each asset type or sub-type.

16. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

sending authentication information to the content providers before downloading the assets during the pre-fetch operation.

17. A non-transitory computer readable medium tangibly embodying programmed instructions which, when executed by a processor in User Equipment (UE), are operable to pre-fetch assets from content providers to the UE, the method comprising:

initiating a pre-fetch operation in the UE to download assets from the content providers in advance of the end user requesting the assets through the UE, wherein the assets comprise content downloadable from content servers of the content providers to the UE for viewing by the end user;

accessing a resource profile for the pre-fetch operation that indicates the content providers that have the assets for the UE to download in advance for local storage on the UE, and defines a percentage of UE resources allocated to each of the content providers for downloading the assets during the pre-fetch operation;

downloading the assets from the content providers to the UE based on the resource profile;

storing the assets in a memory of the UE;

generating a rating for each of the requested assets based on at least one of;

the number of times the asset was requested during the time period, the length of time the asset was accessed by the end user during the time period, and the time between when the asset was downloaded and when it was accessed by the user; and

adjusting the percentages of the UE resources in the resource profile based on the ratings for the assets to generate an updated resource profile for use in a subsequent pre-fetch operation.

18. The medium of claim 17 wherein after the pre-fetch operation, the method further comprises:

receiving a request for an asset from the end user into the UE;

determining, in the UE, if the requested asset was downloaded in advance in the pre-fetch operation;

retrieving the requested asset from the memory of the UE responsive to a determination that the requested asset was downloaded in advance; and

retrieving the requested asset from the content provider over a mobile network responsive to a determination that the requested asset was not downloaded in advance.