Automatically identifying reduced availability of multi-channel media distributors for authentication or authorization

• US 9,641,880 B1
• Filed: 03/15/2016
• Issued: 05/02/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Scurtu, Tudor, Mares, Robert, Galatanu, George Horia, Popa, Alexandru
• Primary Examiner(s): Marandi, James R
• Application Number:
  US15/070,025
• Time in Patent Office: 413 Days
• 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]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/108 when the policy decisions are valid for a limited amount of time
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1408 by monitoring network traffic monitoring network traffic per se H04L43/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/24 Monitoring of processes or resources, e.g. monitoring of server load, available bandwidth, upstream requests monitoring of server performance or load G06F11/34; arrangements for observation, testing or troubleshooting for broadcast or for distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/12
• 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 21/2404 Monitoring of server processing errors or hardware failure error or fault detection G06F11/07; monitoring in general G06F11/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/254 Management at additional data server, e.g. shopping server, rights management server arrangements for maintenance or administration in data networks H04L41/00; network services using third party service providers H04L67/53
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2541 Rights Management protecting software against unauthorised usage in a vending or licensing environment G06F21/10; security in data switching network management H04L41/28; security management or policies for network security H04L63/20; access security in wireless networks H04W12/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/266 Channel or content management, e.g. generation and management of keys and entitlement messages in a conditional access system, merging a VOD unicast channel into a multicast channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4384 involving operations to reduce the access time, e.g. fast-tuning for reducing channel switching latency
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47211 for requesting pay-per-view content payment schemes payment architectures or payment protocols G06Q20/00, G07F
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/485 End-user interface for client configuration

Abstract

Embodiments are provided for automatically identifying reduced availability of multi-channel media distributors for authentication or authorization. For example, an entitlement service communicates with a multi-channel media distributor to authenticate viewers requesting content from programmers or to confirm that authenticated viewers are authorized to receive content from the programmers. The entitlement service receives requests for various programmers to provide media content to user devices, and transmits the requests to the multi-channel media distributor. The entitlement service determines a reduced availability of the multi-channel media distributor based on, for example, an unusually low success rate for authenticating users or authorizing the users'"'"' access to content access based on the transmitted requests. Due to this reduced availability of the multi-channel media distributor, the entitlement service provides the requesting user devices with temporary access to the media content from the programmers during a period in which the reduced availability occurs.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by an entitlement service executed by a processing device, requests for programmers to provide media content to user devices;

transmitting, by the entitlement service, the requests to a multi-channel media distributor, wherein the entitlement service accesses the multi-channel media distributor to authenticate users requesting content from the programmers or to confirm that authenticated users are authorized to receive content from the programmers;

determining, by the entitlement service and based on the transmitted requests, a success rate indicating whether the multi-channel media distributor has failed to authenticate user credentials included in the requests or has failed to authorize content access based on the requests;

identifying, by the entitlement service and based on the success rate, a reduced availability of the multi-channel media distributor; and

providing, by the entitlement service, the user devices with temporary access to the media content from the programmers during a period in which the reduced availability occurs.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the requests are received via a data network from computing devices associated with the programmers,

wherein determining the success rate comprises determining that the multi-channel media distributor has failed to authenticate users or authorize content access for a percentage of the requests,

wherein identifying the reduced availability comprises determining that the percentage of the requests is less than a threshold percentage.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein determining that the percentage of the requests is less than the threshold percentage comprises:

accessing historical data indicating previous requests for the programmers to provide access to content;

identifying, from the historical data, a number of the previous requests that resulted in the multi-channel media distributor authenticating users or authorizing content access; and

calculating the threshold percentage based on the number of the previous requests that resulted in the multi-channel media distributor authenticating users or authorizing content access.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the percentage of the requests is determined for a specific one of the programmers for which the multi-channel media distributor provides authentication or authorization verification.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the percentage of the requests is determined for multiple programmers for which the multi-channel media distributor provides authentication or authorization verification.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises causing, prior to receiving the requests, a test server to transmit the requests via a data network to the entitlement service, wherein the requests include test authentication credentials or test authorization credentials that are valid for the multi-channel media distributor,

wherein identifying the reduced availability comprises determining that the multi-channel media distributor has failed to authenticate the test authentication credentials or authorize content access based on the test authorization credentials.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the requests comprise live requests received via a data network from computing devices associated with the programmers and test requests received via the data network from a test server,

wherein the entitlement service causes the test server to transmit the test requests based on determining that the multi-channel media distributor has failed to authenticate users or authorize content access for a percentage of the live requests that is less than a threshold percentage,

wherein identifying the reduced availability comprises determining that the multi-channel media distributor has failed to authenticate test authentication credentials included in at least some of the test requests or authorize content access based on test authorization credentials included in at least some of the test requests.

8. A system comprising:

a processing device;

a network interface device communicatively coupled to the processing device and configured for receiving requests for programmers to provide media content to user devices; and

a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing program code that comprises an entitlement service,

wherein the processing device is configured for executing the stored program code and thereby performing operations comprising;

configuring the network device to transmit the requests to a multi-channel media distributor used to authenticate users requesting content from the programmers or to confirm that authenticated users are authorized to receive content from the programmers;

determining, based on the transmitted requests, a success rate indicating whether the multi-channel media distributor has failed to authenticate user credentials included in the requests or has failed to authorize content access based on the requests;

identifying, based on the success rate, a reduced availability of the multi-channel media distributor; and

configuring the network device to transmit messages providing the user devices with temporary access to the media content from the programmers during a period in which the reduced availability occurs.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the network interface device is configured for receiving the requests via a data network from computing devices associated with the programmers,

wherein determining the success rate comprises determining that the multi-channel media distributor has failed to authenticate users or authorize content access for a percentage of the requests,

wherein identifying the reduced availability comprises determining that the percentage of the requests is less than a threshold percentage.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein determining that the percentage of the requests is less than the threshold percentage comprises:

accessing historical data indicating previous requests for the programmers to provide access to content;

identifying, from the historical data, a number of the previous requests that resulted in the multi-channel media distributor authenticating users or authorizing content access; and

calculating the threshold percentage based on the number of the previous requests that resulted in the multi-channel media distributor authenticating users or authorizing content access.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the processing device is configured for determining the percentage of the requests for a specific one of the programmers for which the multi-channel media distributor provides authentication or authorization verification.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the processing device is configured for determining the percentage of the requests for multiple programmers for which the multi-channel media distributor provides authentication or authorization verification.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise causing, prior to receiving the requests, a test server to transmit the requests via a data network to the entitlement service, wherein the requests include test authentication credentials or test authorization credentials that are valid for the multi-channel media distributor,

wherein identifying the reduced availability comprises determining that the multi-channel media distributor has failed to authenticate the test authentication credentials or authorize content access based on the test authorization credentials.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the requests comprise live requests received via a data network from computing devices associated with the programmers and test requests received via the data network from a test server,

wherein the processing device is configured for causing the test server to transmit the test requests based on determining that the multi-channel media distributor has failed to authenticate users or authorize content access for a percentage of the live requests that is less than a threshold percentage,

wherein identifying the reduced availability comprises determining that the multi-channel media distributor has failed to authenticate test authentication credentials included in at least some of the test requests or authorize content access based on test authorization credentials included in at least some of the test requests.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having program code executable by a processing device stored thereon, the program code comprising:

program code for receiving requests for programmers to provide media content to user devices;

program code for transmitting the requests to a multi-channel media distributor, wherein the multi-channel media distributor is used to authenticate users requesting content from the programmers or to confirm that authenticated users are authorized to receive content from the programmers;

program code for determining, based on the transmitted requests, a success rate indicating whether the multi-channel media distributor has failed to authenticate user credentials included in the requests or has failed to authorize content access based on the requests;

program code for identifying, based on the success rate, a reduced availability of the multi-channel media distributor; and

program code for providing the user devices with temporary access to the media content from the programmers during a period in which the reduced availability occurs.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15,

wherein determining the success rate comprises determining that the multi-channel media distributor has failed to authenticate users or authorize content access for a percentage of the requests,

wherein identifying the reduced availability comprises determining that the percentage of the requests is less than a threshold percentage.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein determining that the percentage of the requests is less than the threshold percentage comprises:

accessing historical data indicating previous requests for the programmers to provide access to content;

identifying, from the historical data, a number of the previous requests that resulted in the multi-channel media distributor authenticating users or authorizing content access; and

calculating the threshold percentage based on the number of the previous requests that resulted in the multi-channel media distributor authenticating users or authorizing content access.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the percentage of the requests is determined for at least one of:

a specific one of the programmers for which the multi-channel media distributor provides authentication or authorization verification;

or

multiple programmers for which the multi-channel media distributor provides authentication or authorization verification.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the program code further comprises program code for causing, prior to receiving the requests, a test server to transmit the requests via a data network to the entitlement service, wherein the requests include test authentication credentials or test authorization credentials that are valid for the multi-channel media distributor,

wherein identifying the reduced availability comprises determining that the multi-channel media distributor has failed to authenticate the test authentication credentials or authorize content access based on the test authorization credentials.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the requests comprise live requests received via a data network from computing devices associated with the programmers and test requests received via the data network from a test server,

wherein the program code further comprises program code for causing the test server to transmit the test requests based on determining that the multi-channel media distributor has failed to authenticate users or authorize content access for a percentage of the live requests that is less than a threshold percentage,

wherein identifying the reduced availability comprises determining that the multi-channel media distributor has failed to authenticate test authentication credentials included in at least some of the test requests or authorize content access based on test authorization credentials included in at least some of the test requests.