Service gateway for interactive television

• US 9,369,330 B2
• Filed: 12/18/2013
• Issued: 06/14/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/02/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: OpenTV, Inc. (Kudelski SA)
• Original Assignee: OpenTV, Inc. (Kudelski SA)
• Inventors: Alao, Rachad, Delpuch, Alain, Dureau, Vincent, Henrard, Jose, Huntington, Matthew, Lam, Waiman, Kidd, Taylor W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kumar, Pankaj
• Assistant Examiner(s): NEWLIN, TIMOTHY R
• Application Number:
  US14/133,435
• Publication Number:
  US 20140109167A1
• Time in Patent Office: 909 Days
• Field of Search: 725/74, 725/78, 725/81, 725/82
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 method comprising:

receiving, at a service gateway, data from a service provider;

generating a record of latencies for transmissions of data over a broadcast link and a point to point connection the record of latencies relating each of a plurality of sizes of data transmitted to an average delivery latency;

selecting, using at least one hardware processor of the service gateway, one of the broadcast link and the point to point connection over which to transmit the data to a client device based on at least one characteristic of the data, at least one transmission characteristic of the broadcast link, at least one transmission characteristic of the point to point connection, and the record of latencies; and

sending, from the service gateway, the data to the client device over the selected one of the broadcast link and the point to point connection.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the point to point connection comprises a return channel communicatively coupling the service gateway and the client device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one characteristic of the data comprises a size of the data.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the selecting of the one of the broadcast link and the point to point connection comprises selecting the broadcast link based on the size of the data exceeding a particular size.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one characteristic of the data comprises whether the data is to be provided immediately to the client device.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the selecting of the one of the broadcast link and the point to point connection comprises selecting the point to point connection to provide the data immediately to the client device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one characteristic of the data comprises a number of client devices to which the data is to be transmitted and the number of client devices includes the client device.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the selecting of the one of the broadcast link and the point to point connection comprises selecting the broadcast link based on the number of client devices exceeding a particular number.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one transmission characteristic comprises a delivery latency.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating of the record of latencies comprises randomly distributing transmissions of data of similar size over both the broadcast link and the point to point connection.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating of the record of latencies comprises:

adding new latency data to the record of latencies based on recent data transmissions; and

removing a portion of latency data from the record of latencies in response to the portion of the latency data exceeding a predetermined age.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one transmission characteristic comprises a loading condition.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the sending of the data to the client device over the broadcast link comprises sending the data to the client device in a broadcast carousel.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

tracking a demand of the data from a plurality of client devices including the client device; and

adjusting a frequency of appearance of the data in the broadcast carousel based on the tracked demand of the data.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the data comprises at least one of application code, control data, and audio/visual data.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the client device comprises a set-top box.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the client device comprises a mobile communication device.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by at least one hardware processor of a service gateway, cause the service gateway to perform operations comprising:

receiving, at the service gateway, data from a service provider;

generating a record of latencies for transmissions of data over a broadcast link and a point to point connection, the record of latencies relating each of a plurality of sizes of data transmitted to an average delivery latency;

selecting, at the service gateway, one of the broadcast link and the point to point connection over which to transmit the data to a client device based on at least one characteristic of the data at least one transmission characteristic of the broadcast link at least one transmission characteristic of the point to point connection, and the record of latencies; and

sending, from the service gateway, the data to the client device over the selected one of the broadcast link and the point to point connection.

19. A service gateway comprising:

at least one hardware processor; and

memory comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one hardware processor, cause the service gateway to perform operations comprising;

receiving, at the service gateway, data from a service provider;

generating a record of latencies for transmissions of data over a broadcast link and a point to point connection, the record of latencies relating each of a plurality of sizes of data transmitted to an average delivery latency;

selecting, at the service gateway, one of the broadcast link and the point to point connection over which to transmit the data to a client device based on at least one characteristic of the data, at least one transmission characteristic of the broadcast link, at least one transmission characteristic of the point to point connection, and the record of latencies; and

sending, from the service gateway, the data to the client device over the selected one of the broadcast link and the point to point connection.