Determining a property of a communication device
First Claim
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1. A method of determining a property for a subject communication device by one or more electronic devices, which subject communication device has a string of characters associated with it, the method comprising:
- providing a store of previously identified properties of sample communication devices in which the previously identified properties in the store are referenced by nodes of a tree of sample strings of characters similarly associated with the sample communication devices, and the tree is structured in accordance with the characters of the sample strings of characters such that nodes of the tree comprise consecutive substrings common to the sample strings of characters of more than one of the sample communication devices;
receiving the string of characters associated with the subject communication device;
using the string of characters associated with the subject communication device to retrieve a property from the store of previously identified properties of sample communication devices by sequentially comparing the string of characters associated with the subject communication device to the tree of sample strings of characters associated with the sample communication devices until the node of the tree by which the property is referenced in the store is found, then reading that property from the store; and
wherein nodes are flagged when there is a later node along the tree that references the same property with a different value, and when the node that is found has a flag, then continuing to compare the string of characters associated with the subject communication device to the tree of sample strings of characters associated with the sample communication devices until a node of the tree by which the selected property is referenced in the store without a flag is found, then reading the value of that property from the store.
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Abstract
A mobile communication device (1) sends an HTTP request for a Web resource over a mobile network (3) to a Web server (2). The USER AGENT string of the HTTP request is used by the Web server (2) to retrieve properties of the mobile communication device (1) from device properties stored in a device property store (4). The device properties are referenced by nodes of a tree of sample USER AGENT strings for sample mobile communication devices.
125 Citations
29 Claims
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1. A method of determining a property for a subject communication device by one or more electronic devices, which subject communication device has a string of characters associated with it, the method comprising:
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providing a store of previously identified properties of sample communication devices in which the previously identified properties in the store are referenced by nodes of a tree of sample strings of characters similarly associated with the sample communication devices, and the tree is structured in accordance with the characters of the sample strings of characters such that nodes of the tree comprise consecutive substrings common to the sample strings of characters of more than one of the sample communication devices; receiving the string of characters associated with the subject communication device; using the string of characters associated with the subject communication device to retrieve a property from the store of previously identified properties of sample communication devices by sequentially comparing the string of characters associated with the subject communication device to the tree of sample strings of characters associated with the sample communication devices until the node of the tree by which the property is referenced in the store is found, then reading that property from the store; and wherein nodes are flagged when there is a later node along the tree that references the same property with a different value, and when the node that is found has a flag, then continuing to compare the string of characters associated with the subject communication device to the tree of sample strings of characters associated with the sample communication devices until a node of the tree by which the selected property is referenced in the store without a flag is found, then reading the value of that property from the store. - View Dependent Claims (2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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3. A method of providing content to a subject communication device over a communications system by one or more electronic devices, which subject communication device has a string of characters associated with it, the method comprising:
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providing a store of previously identified properties of sample communication devices in which the previously identified properties in the store are referenced by nodes of a tree of sample strings of characters similarly associated with the sample communication devices, and the tree is structured in accordance with the characters of the sample strings of characters such that nodes of the tree comprise consecutive substrings common to the sample strings of characters of more than one of the sample communication devices; receiving a request from the subject communication device for content to be provided to it, the request including the string of characters associated with the communication device; determining a property for the subject communication device by using the string of characters associated with the subject communication device to retrieve the property from the store of previously identified properties of sample mobile devices by sequentially comparing the string of characters associated with the subject communication device to the tree of sample strings of characters associated with the sample communication devices until the node of the tree by which the property is referenced in the store is found, then reading that property from the store; optimizing the content based on the retrieved property; wherein nodes are flagged when there is a later node along the tree that references the same property with a different value, and when the node that is found has a flag, then continuing to compare the string of characters associated with the subject communication device to the tree of sample strings of characters associated with the sample communication devices until a node of the tree by which the selected property is referenced in the store without a flag is found, then reading the value of that property from the store. - View Dependent Claims (17, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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26. A method of determining a property for a subject communication device by one or more electronic devices, which subject communication device has a string of characters associated with it, the method comprising:
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providing a store of previously identified properties of sample communication devices in which the previously identified properties are referenced by nodes of a tree of sample strings of characters similarly associated with the sample communication devices, the tree is structured in accordance with the characters of the sample strings of characters, and each previously identified property is referenced by the first node along the tree common to the sample communication devices having that previously identified property; receiving the string of characters associated with the subject communication device; using the string of characters associated with the subject communication device to retrieve a property from the store of previously identified properties of sample communication devices by sequentially comparing the string of characters associated with the subject communication device to the tree of sample strings of characters associated with the sample communication devices until the node of the tree by which the property is referenced in the store is found, then reading that property from the store; and wherein nodes are flagged when there is a later node along the tree that references the same property with a different value, and when the node that is found has a flag, then continuing to compare the string of characters associated with the subject communication device to the tree of sample strings of characters associated with the sample communication devices until a node of the tree by which the selected property is referenced in the store without a flag is found, then reading the value of that property from the store.
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27. A method of determining a property for a subject communication device by one or more electronic devices, which subject communication device has a string of characters associated with it, the method comprising:
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providing a store of previously identified properties of sample communication devices in which the previously identified properties in the store are referenced by nodes of a tree of sample strings of characters similarly associated with the sample communication devices, and the tree is structured in accordance with the characters of the sample strings of characters with adjacent nodes comprising substrings that are consecutive parts of the sample strings of characters; receiving the string of characters associated with the subject communication device; using the string of characters associated with the subject communication device to retrieve a property from the store of previously identified properties of sample communication devices by sequentially comparing the string of characters associated with the subject communication device to the tree of sample strings of characters associated with the sample communication devices until the node of the tree by which the property is referenced in the store is found, then reading that property from the store; and wherein nodes are flagged when there is a later node along the tree that references the same property with a different value, and when the node that is found has a flag, then continuing to compare the string of characters associated with the subject communication device to the tree of sample strings of characters associated with the sample communication devices until a node of the tree by which the selected property is referenced in the store without a flag is found, then reading the value of that property from the store.
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28. A method of determining a value of a property for a subject communication device by one or more electronic devices, which subject communication device has a string of characters associated with it, the method comprising:
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providing a store of previously identified properties of sample communication devices in which the previously identified properties are referenced by nodes of a tree of sample strings of characters similarly associated with the sample communication devices, the tree is structured in accordance with the characters of the sample strings of characters, and each previously identified property is referenced by the first node along the tree common to the sample communication devices having that previously identified property; selecting a property of the subject communication device for which to determine a value, using the string of characters associated with the subject communication device to retrieve a value of the selected property from the store of previously identified properties of sample communication devices by sequentially comparing the string of characters associated with the subject communication device to the tree of sample strings of characters associated with the sample communication devices until the node of the tree by which the selected property is referenced in the store is found, then reading the value of that property from the store; and wherein nodes are flagged when there is a later node along the tree that references the same property with a different value, and when the node that is found has a flag, then continuing to compare the string of characters associated with the subject communication device to the tree of sample strings of characters associated with the sample communication devices until a node of the tree by which the selected property is referenced in the store without a flag is found, then reading the value of that property from the store.
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29. A method of determining a value of a property for a subject communication device by one or more electronic devices, which subject communication device has a string of characters associated with it, the method comprising:
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providing a store of previously identified properties of sample communication devices in which the previously identified properties in the store are referenced by nodes of a tree of sample strings of characters similarly associated with the sample communication devices, and the tree is structured in accordance with the characters of the sample strings of characters; selecting a property of the subject communication device for which to determine a value, using the string of characters associated with the subject communication device to retrieve a value of the selected property from the store of previously identified values of properties of sample communication devices by sequentially comparing the string of characters associated with the subject communication device to the tree of sample strings of characters associated with the sample communication devices until a node of the tree by which the selected property is referenced in the store is found, wherein nodes are flagged when there is a later node along the tree that references the same property with a different value, and when the node that is found has a flag, then continuing to compare the string of characters associated with the subject communication device to the tree of sample strings of characters associated with the sample communication devices until a node of the tree by which the selected property is referenced in the store without a flag is found, then reading the value of that property from the store.
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Specification