Close fulfillment of content requests
First Claim
1. A method for resource shifting in a communications infrastructure having a provider-side system in communication with a plurality of subscriber-side systems, the method comprising:
- receiving a first request for a content object via a requesting one of a plurality of subscriber-side systems associated with a subscriber;
determining, by a provider-side system, whether to perform resource shifting in the communications infrastructure in response to a network resource usage calculated from subscriber-side system demands;
calculating, by the provider-side system, a request engagement relationship between the requested content object and a plurality of watch-nowable content objects, wherein the watch-nowable content objects are determined to be watch-nowable content objects with respect to the requesting subscriber-side system as being deliverable to the requesting subscriber-side system substantially in real time according to present characteristics of a network for delivering the plurality of watch-nowable content objects, and each of at least some of the watch-nowable content objects has an associated content engagement relationship between itself and others of the plurality of watch-nowable content objects;
determining, by the provider-side system, a set of alternate content objects comprising those of the plurality of watch-nowable content objects having content engagement relationships most similar to the request engagement relationship of the requested content object; and
communicating, to the subscriber via the requesting subscriber-side system, in response to the determined network resource usage and the determined set of alternate content objects an offer of a discount in exchange for the subscriber opting for delivery of one of the set of alternate content objects instead of opting for delivery of the requested content object, the requested content object not being communicated to the requesting subscriber-side system when the offer is received;
receiving, in response to the offer, a second request from the subscriber via the requesting subscriber-side system for a selected content object, such that the selected content object is the requested content object; and
delivering the selected content object to the subscriber via the requesting subscriber-side system in response to the second request.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Systems and methods are described for subscriber-driven resource shifting in an attempt to maximize delivery of desirable content to subscribers while minimizing the impact of that content delivery to network infrastructure resources. When a media plan subscriber requests access to media content, and the requested object is determined not to be “watch-nowable” (e.g., it would be undesirable to deliver the object in substantially real time to the subscriber given present communications resource availability) embodiments identify a number of content objects that are presently watch-nowable content objects with respect to the requesting subscriber. Of those watch-nowable content objects, various techniques are presented for determining a set of alternate content objects, including those most likely to provide the subscriber with a similar level of engagement. Embodiments present those alternate content objects to the requesting subscriber as alternatives to the requested content object in exchange for a discount.
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Citations
27 Claims
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1. A method for resource shifting in a communications infrastructure having a provider-side system in communication with a plurality of subscriber-side systems, the method comprising:
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receiving a first request for a content object via a requesting one of a plurality of subscriber-side systems associated with a subscriber; determining, by a provider-side system, whether to perform resource shifting in the communications infrastructure in response to a network resource usage calculated from subscriber-side system demands; calculating, by the provider-side system, a request engagement relationship between the requested content object and a plurality of watch-nowable content objects, wherein the watch-nowable content objects are determined to be watch-nowable content objects with respect to the requesting subscriber-side system as being deliverable to the requesting subscriber-side system substantially in real time according to present characteristics of a network for delivering the plurality of watch-nowable content objects, and each of at least some of the watch-nowable content objects has an associated content engagement relationship between itself and others of the plurality of watch-nowable content objects; determining, by the provider-side system, a set of alternate content objects comprising those of the plurality of watch-nowable content objects having content engagement relationships most similar to the request engagement relationship of the requested content object; and communicating, to the subscriber via the requesting subscriber-side system, in response to the determined network resource usage and the determined set of alternate content objects an offer of a discount in exchange for the subscriber opting for delivery of one of the set of alternate content objects instead of opting for delivery of the requested content object, the requested content object not being communicated to the requesting subscriber-side system when the offer is received; receiving, in response to the offer, a second request from the subscriber via the requesting subscriber-side system for a selected content object, such that the selected content object is the requested content object; and delivering the selected content object to the subscriber via the requesting subscriber-side system in response to the second request. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A provider-side system for resource shifting in a communications infrastructure in communication with a plurality of subscriber-side systems, the system comprising:
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a provider-side subsystem that determines whether to perform resource shifting in the communications infrastructure in response to a network resource usage calculated from subscriber-side system demands; a offer generator subsystem that; calculates a request engagement relationship between a requested content object and a plurality of content objects determined to be watch-nowable content objects with respect to a requesting subscriber-side system associated with a subscriber, each of at least some of the watch-nowable content objects having an associated content engagement relationship between itself and others of the plurality of watch-nowable content objects; determines a set of alternate content objects comprising those of the plurality of watch-nowable content objects having content engagement relationships most similar to the request engagement relationship of the requested content object; and communicates, to the subscriber via the requesting subscriber-side system, in response to the determined network resource usage and the determined set of alternate content objects an offer of a discount in exchange for the subscriber opting for delivery of one of the set of alternate content objects instead of opting for delivery of the requested content object, the requested content object not being communicated to the requesting subscriber-side system when the offer is received, wherein the offer generation subsystem further models the plurality of watch-nowable content objects as being within a multi-dimensional vector space wherein the content engagement relationship associated with each of the watch-nowable content objects is represented as a corresponding location in the multi-dimensional vector space calculated according to a set of pre-defined engagement parameters as applied to engagement characteristics associated with the requesting subscriber-side system, and wherein the offer generation subsystem calculates the request engagement relationship by modeling a location of the requested content object in the multi-dimensional vector space according to the set of pre-defined engagement parameters as applied to the engagement characteristics associated with the requesting subscriber-side system. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. A method for resource shifting in a communications infrastructure having a provider-side system in communication with a plurality of subscriber-side systems, the method comprising:
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receiving a request for a content object via a requesting one of a plurality of subscriber-side systems associated with a subscriber; determining, by a provider-side system, whether to perform resource shifting in the communications infrastructure in response to a network resource usage calculated from subscriber-side system demands; calculating, by the provider-system, a request engagement relationship between the requested content object and a plurality of watch-nowable content objects, wherein the watch-nowable content objects are determined to be watch-nowable content objects with respect to the requesting subscriber-side system, and each of at least some of the watch-nowable content objects has an associated content engagement relationship between itself and others of the plurality of watch-nowable content objects; determining, by the provider-system, a set of alternate content objects comprising those of the plurality of watch-nowable content objects having content engagement relationships most similar to the request engagement relationship of the requested content object; communicating, to the subscriber via the requesting subscriber-side system, in response to the determined network resource usage and the determined set of alternate content objects an offer of a discount in exchange for the subscriber opting for delivery of one of the set of alternate content objects instead of opting for delivery of the requested content object; wherein determining the set of alternate content objects comprises;
identifying a plurality of candidate alternate content objects as watch-nowable content objects having content engagement relationships most similar to the request engagement relationship of the requested content object;calculating a candidate score for each candidate alternate content object according to a set of scalars; determining the set of alternate content objects as comprising a predetermined number of the those of the candidate alternate content objects having highest respective candidate scores; and wherein each of the set of scalars includes a diversity scalar indicating a magnitude of diversity between a respective candidate alternate content object and others of the candidate alternate content objects, to ensure that the alternate content objects are not too similar.
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Specification