Method and apparatus for maintaining content view statistics in a named data network

• US 9,147,051 B2
• Filed: 03/03/2014
• Issued: 09/29/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/03/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Palo Alto Research Center, Inc. (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Mahadevan, Priya, Scott, Glenn C., Meike, Roger C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Haresh N
• Application Number:
  US14/195,717
• Publication Number:
  US 20150248542A1
• Time in Patent Office: 575 Days
• Field of Search: 726 26- 29, 726 3- 5
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]

Abstract

A client device that obtains a data object for a local user, and can detect a check-in requirement in the data object that instructs the client device to share demographic information with a content broker. The client device generates a check-in message that indicates the data object, and includes identifying information for the local user or the local client device. The client device sends the check-in message to the content broker to share the identifying information. The content broker can analyze the check-in message to determine the user'"'"'s identifying information, and to determine the data object being consumed by the user. The media broker then stores or aggregates the user'"'"'s demographic information in a repository, in association with the data object. The media broker generates a response packet that grants the client device access to the data object'"'"'s contents, and returns the response packet to the client device.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving, by a media broker, a check-in message from a client device consuming a data object;

analyzing, by a processor, the check-in message to determine at least the data object being consumed by the client device, and identifying information for the client device or user of the client device;

determining demographic information for the client device or the user based on the identifying information from the check-in message;

accounting for the demographic information in association with the data object;

responsive to receiving the check-in message, generating a response packet that satisfies the check-in message, wherein the response packet grants the client device access to present the data object'"'"'s contents to the user;

returning the response packet to satisfy the check-in message;

receiving an Interest that requests aggregated demographic information for data object;

generating an analytics report that includes aggregated demographic information for clients that have consumed the data object;

generating a Content Object whose payload includes the analytics report; and

disseminating the Content Object over a named-data network to satisfy the Interest.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein analyzing the check-in message involves obtaining a unique identifier for the client device or the user, wherein the unique identifier includes at least one of a public key or any other secure identifier that is unique to the client device or the user of the client device;

and

wherein determining the demographic information involves querying a demographic-information repository based on the unique identifier.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein analyzing the check-in message involves obtaining, from the check-in message, one or more demographic-information attributes that characterize the client device or a user of the client device, wherein the demographic-information attributes include one or more of:

location information;

demographic information; and

a session identifier.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein accounting for the demographic information involves aggregating a respective demographic-information attribute into a corresponding aggregated-attribute value of a demographic-information repository, wherein the aggregated-attribute value aggregates demographic information from a plurality of users.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein accounting for the demographic-information involves storing the determined demographic information in a demographic-information repository in association with the data object.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the response packet includes a secret sauce that includes instructions for the client device to decode the data object.

7. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform a method, the method comprising:

receiving a check-in message from a client device consuming a data object;

analyzing the check-in message to determine at least the data object being consumed by the client device, and identifying information for the client device or a user of the client device;

determining demographic information for the client device or the user based on the identifying information from the check-in message;

accounting for the demographic information in association with the data object;

responsive to receiving the check-in message, generating a response packet that satisfies the check-in message, wherein the response packet grants the client device access to present the data object'"'"'s contents to the user;

returning the responsive packet to satisfy the check-in message;

receiving an Interest that requests aggregated demographic information for the data object;

generating an analytic report that includes aggregated demographic-information for clients that have consumed the data object;

generating a Content Object whose payload includes the analytics report; and

disseminating the Content Object over a named-data network to satisfy the Interest.

8. The storage medium of claim 7, wherein analyzing the check-in message involves obtaining a unique identifier for the client device or the user, wherein the unique identifier includes at least one of a public key or any other secure identifier that is unique to the client device or the user of the client device;

and

wherein determining the demographic information involves querying a demographic-information repository based on the unique identifier.

9. The storage medium of claim 7, wherein analyzing the check-in message involves obtaining, from the checkin message, one or more demographic-information attributes that characterize the client device or a user of the client device, wherein the demographic-information attributes include one or more of:

location information;

demographic information; and

a session identifier.

10. The storage medium of claim 7, wherein accounting for the demographic information information involves aggregating a respective demographic-information attribute into a corresponding aggregated-attribute value of a demographic-information repository, wherein the aggregated-attribute value aggregates demographic-information from a plurality of users.

11. The storage medium of claim 7, wherein accounting for the demographic-information involves storing the determined demographic information in a demographic-information repository in association with the data object.

12. The storage medium of claim 7, wherein the response packet includes a secret sauce that includes instructions for the client device to decode the data object.

13. A computer system, comprising:

a processor; and

a storage device storing instructions which when executed by the processor cause the processor to perform a method, the method comprising;

receiving by a media broker, a check-in message from a client device consuming a data object;

analyzing the check-in message to determine at least the data object being consumed by the client device, and identifying information for the client device or a user of the client device;

determining demographic information for the client device or the user based on the identifying information from the check-in message;

accounting for the demographic information in association with the data object;

responsive to receiving the check-in message, generating a response packet that satisfies the check-in message, wherein the response packet grants the client device access to present the data object'"'"'s contents to the user;

returning the response packet to satisfy the check-in message;

receiving an Interest that requests aggregated demographic information for the data object;

generating an analytics report that includes aggregated demographic information for clients that have consumed the data object;

generating a Content Object whose payload includes the analytics report; and

disseminating the Content Object over a named-data network to satisfy the Interest.

14. The computer system of claim 13, wherein analyzing the check-in message involves obtaining a unique identifier for the client device or the user, wherein the unique identifier includes at least one of a public key or any other secure identifier that is unique to the client device or the user of the client device;

and

wherein determining the demographic information involves querying a demographic-information repository based on the unique identifier.

15. The computer system of claim 13, wherein analyzing the check-in message involves obtaining, from the check-in message, one or more demographic-information attributes that characterize the client device or a user of the client device, wherein the demographic-information attributes include one or more of;

location information;

demographic information; and

a session identifier.

16. The computer system of claim 13, wherein accounting for the demographic information involves aggregating a respective demographic-information attribute into a corresponding aggregated-attribute value of a demographic-information repository, wherein the aggregated-attribute value aggregates demographic information from a plurality of users.

17. The computer system of claim 13, wherein accounting for the demographic information involves storing the determined demographic information in a demographic-information repository in association with the data object.

18. The computer system of claim 13, wherein the response packet includes a secret sauce that includes instructions for the client device to decode the data object.