Systems and methods for controlling access to a media stream

• US 9,118,738 B2
• Filed: 09/28/2012
• Issued: 08/25/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2011
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: NetScout Systems Texas, LLC (NetScout Systems Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Avvasi Inc (NetScout Systems Incorporated)
• Inventors: Archer, Michael, Prgin, Mate, Eble, Dan, Joch, Anthony, Gallant, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Smithers, Matthew
• Assistant Examiner(s): Elmore, Gregory M
• Application Number:
  US13/630,326
• Publication Number:
  US 20130086631A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,061 Days
• Field of Search: 726/1, 726/26, 726/29, 709/203, 710/36, 725/95
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/765 intermediate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS

Abstract

Systems and methods of controlling access to a multimedia stream in a media streaming session from a multimedia server to a requesting device via a network. The systems and methods facilitate receiving a primary request for the multimedia stream from the requesting device; determining whether to allow access to the primary request from the requesting device in accordance with at least one media session policy; and if access is permitted, then generating a secondary request corresponding to the primary request; providing the secondary request to the multimedia server; receiving a first multimedia stream from the multimedia server in response to the secondary request; determining whether to transmit the first multimedia stream or a second multimedia stream based on the at least one media session policy; and transmitting either the first multimedia stream or the second multimedia stream to the requesting device as indicated by the at least one media session policy.

Claims

1. A method of controlling access to a multimedia stream in a media streaming session from a multimedia server to a requesting device via a network, the method comprising:

receiving via a mobile data network, by at least one processor of a service gateway system, a primary request for the multimedia stream from the requesting device;

determining whether to allow access to the primary request from the requesting device in accordance with at least one policy; and

when the determination is made to permit access, then;

generating, at the at least one processor, a secondary request based on the determination in accordance with the at least one policy, and corresponding to the primary request;

providing the secondary request from the service gateway system to the multimedia server via a second data network;

receiving a first multimedia stream from the multimedia server at the service gateway system in response to the secondary request;

determining, using the at least one processor, whether to transmit the first multimedia stream from the service gateway system to the requesting device based on the at least one policy and, when the determination is made not to transmit the first multimedia stream, then transmitting via the mobile data network an alternative stream to the requesting device, wherein the alternative stream comprises busy notification content.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating the busy notification content.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the busy notification content is customized based on a criteria selected from a group consisting of a subscriber, a subscription tier, roaming status, one or more attributes associated with the first multimedia stream, a device type, a device model, a network location, a location capacity, a site, a service, a time of day, and a predicted QoE.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising transcoding the first multimedia stream to reduce a bandwidth requirement.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing an option to increase priority of at least one future time slot, the at least one future time slot identifying a time slot during which the requesting device begins receiving the first multimedia stream.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein providing an option to increase priority of the at least one future time slot comprises accepting one or more reservation tokens from the requesting device to increase priority of the future time slot.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising providing a request-repeat message, the request-repeat message identifying a time at which the requesting device is permitted to repeat the primary request.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising, when the determination is made to transmit the first stream other than in real-time, providing an option to the requesting device to download the first multimedia stream other than in real-time.

16. The system of claim 8, wherein, when the determination is made to transmit the first stream other than in real-time, the at least one processor is further configured to provide an option to the requesting device to download the first multimedia stream other than in real-time.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising, when the determination is made to transmit the first stream, determining whether to transmit the first stream other than in real-time.

9. A system for controlling access to a multimedia stream in a media streaming session from a multimedia server to a requesting device via a network, the system comprising:

a memory; and

at least one processor, the at least one processor configured to;

receive, via a mobile data network, a primary request for the multimedia stream from the requesting device;

determine whether to allow access to the primary request from the requesting device in accordance with at least one policy, and

wherein, when the determination is made to permit access at least one processor is configured to;

generate a secondary request based on the determination in accordance with the at least one policy, and corresponding to the primary request;

provide the secondary request from the system to the multimedia server via a second data network;

receive a first multimedia stream from the multimedia server at the system in response to the secondary request;

determine whether to transmit the first multimedia stream from the system to the requesting device based on the at least one policy and, when the determination is made not to transmit the first multimedia stream, then transmit via the mobile data network an alternative stream to the requesting device, wherein the alternative stream comprises busy notification content.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to generate the busy notification content.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the busy notification content is customized based on a criteria selected from a group consisting of a subscriber, a subscription tier, roaming status, one or more attributes associated with the first multimedia stream, a device type, a device model, a network location, a location capacity, a site, a service, a time of day, and a predicted QoE.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to transcode the first multimedia stream to reduce a bandwidth requirement.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to provide an option to increase priority of at least one future time slot, the at least one future time slot identifying a time slot during which the at least one processor begins transmitting the first multimedia stream to the requesting device.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein providing an option to increase priority of the at least one future time slot comprises accepting one or more reservation tokens from the requesting device to increase priority of the future time slot.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to provide a request-repeat message, the request-repeat message identifying a time at which the requesting device is permitted to repeat the primary request.

18. The system of claim 9, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to determine, when the determination is made to transmit the first stream, whether to transmit the first stream other than in real-time.