Ad management using ads cached on a mobile electronic device

• US 9,734,515 B1
• Filed: 01/09/2014
• Issued: 08/15/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/09/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile Innovations LLC (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Lee, Do Kyu, Sifuentes, Hannah J., Thantharate, Anurag, Belser, John E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Sigmond, Bennett
• Assistant Examiner(s): Anderson, Scott C
• Application Number:
  US14/150,832
• Time in Patent Office: 1,314 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/289 Intermediate processing functionally located close to the data consumer application, e.g. in same machine, in same home or in same sub-network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/06 Optimizing the usage of the radio link, e.g. header compression, information sizing , discarding information system modifying transmission characteristic according to link quality by modifying frame length H04L1/0007; dynamic adaptation of the packet size for flow control or congestion control H04L47/365
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications

Abstract

A mobile communication device that replenishes and manages ads to display on an active application. The mobile communication device comprises a radio transceiver, a processor, a memory, a plurality of applications, stored in the memory, wherein each application comprises an ad client, and an ad manager, stored in the memory. The ad manager, when executed by the processor, requests a plurality of ads from an ad gateway associated with the network associated with the mobile communication device. The ad manager then receives a plurality of ads from the ad gateway. The ad manager then stores these ads into an ad cache, embedded within the memory of the mobile communication device. The ad manager receives a request from an ad client of one of the applications for an ad to display. The ad manager sends an ad selected from the ad cache to the ad client in the active application.

Claims

1. A mobile device system that controls requests to an ad gateway for reducing network usage in the retrieval of ads, the system comprising:

a mobile communication device, comprising;

a radio transceiver configured to communicatively couple with a network;

a processor;

a non-transitory memory in signal communication with the processor;

a plurality of active applications stored in the non-transitory memory comprising a plurality of ad clients, wherein an ad client is embedded within each active application of the plurality of active applications; and

an ad manager, stored in the non-transitory memory, that upon execution by the processor, configures the processor to;

request a plurality of ads from an ad gateway external to the mobile communication device, the ad gateway facilitating communication between the ad manager on the mobile communication device and an ad data store external to the mobile communication device,

receive the plurality of ads from the ad data store via the ad gateway, wherein the plurality of ads are obtained by the ad manager from the ad gateway instead of by each of the plurality of active applications on the mobile device individually establishing connections with the ad gateway to request one or more ads,

store the plurality of ads in an ad cache of the non-transitory memory, and

control delivery of one or more of the plurality of ads to the plurality of active applications on the mobile communication device by;

in response to the plurality of ad clients monitoring the plurality of active applications, receive requests from the plurality of ad clients embedded within the plurality of active applications for an ad to display within an active application corresponding to a requesting ad client, and

in response to each of the requests received from the plurality of ad clients embedded within the plurality of active applications, select at least one ad of the plurality of ads from the ad cache on the mobile communication device and send the at least one ad to the requesting ad client in the corresponding active application, wherein the requesting ad client presents the at least one ad within the corresponding active application, and wherein the ad manager is a central point of control to disable and enable display and presentation of the plurality of ads received from the ad data store via the ad gateway.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the ad manager configures the processor to:

receive a payload from a wireless service provider via the radio transceiver,

suppress display of ads, from at least the ad cache, in each of the plurality of active applications on the mobile communication device based on the payload, and

track ad experiences completed by the mobile communication device, and transmit information of the ad experiences about the type of ad that was experienced to a profile data store via the radio transceiver, wherein an ad experience comprises the event of an ad being presented on a display of the mobile communication device.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the profile data store comprises information about a subscriber profile stored in non-transitory memory at the wireless service provider, and wherein at least one of the plurality of ads received from the ad gateway is selected based on the subscriber profile and a likelihood that the ad results in an ad experience.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the subscriber profile stored in the profile data store comprises the information about ad experience and at least one of gender, ethnicity, age, financial status, educational level, or interests that are associated with a subscriber corresponding to the subscriber profile.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile communication device comprises one of a mobile phone, a smart phone, a media player, a tablet computer, or a personal digital assistant.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the ad manager further configures the processor to receive the requests from the plurality of ad clients after the ad manager stores the plurality of ads in the ad cache.

7. A computer implemented method on a mobile communication device for controlling requests to an ad gateway for reducing network usage in the retrieval of ads, the method comprising:

embedding, on a mobile communication device, an ad client within each of a plurality of active applications stored on the mobile communication device;

determining, by executing an ad manager stored in a non-transitory memory that configures at least one processor on the mobile communication device, that the ad client embedded within each of the plurality of active applications stored on the mobile communication device is requesting an ad to display in the plurality of active applications based on a plurality of ad clients that monitor the plurality of active applications, wherein each of the plurality of active applications comprises one of the plurality of ad clients;

requesting, by the ad manager via a network, a plurality of ads from an ad data store external to the mobile communication device via an ad gateway external to the mobile communication device, wherein the plurality of ads are obtained by the ad manager on the mobile communication device from the ad gateway instead of by each of the plurality of active applications on the mobile device individually establishing connections with the ad gateway via the network to request one or more ads;

receiving, by the ad manager via the network, the plurality of ads from the ad data store via the ad gateway in response to the requesting;

storing, by the ad manager, the plurality of ads in an ad cache of the mobile communication device; and

controlling, by the ad manager, retrieval of the plurality of ads from the ad gateway and delivery of one or more of the plurality of ads to the plurality of active applications by;

in response to determining that the plurality of ad clients embedded in the plurality of active applications are requesting an ad to display, selecting at least one ad from the ad cache to display within an active application corresponding to a requesting ad client, and

in response to the ad clients requesting ads and the ad manager selecting the at least one ad from the ad cache, transmitting, by the ad manager, the at least one ad of the plurality of ads from the ad cache on the mobile communication device to the requesting ad client embedded in the corresponding active application, wherein the requesting ad client presents the at least one ad within the corresponding active application, and wherein the ad manager is a central point of control to disable and enable display and presentation of the plurality of ads received from the ad gateway.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein each ad client of the plurality of ad clients accesses the ad cache directly to retrieve ads.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the number of ads the ad manager receives from the ad gateway is at least 20.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the number of ads the ad manager receives from the ad gateway is at least 40.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

tracking, by the ad manager via the respective ad client, each active application corresponding to each ad client that is requesting an ad; and

notifying, by the ad manager via the network, the ad gateway of which active application is requesting the ad via the respective ad client.

12. A computer implemented method on a mobile communication device for controlling requests to an ad gateway for reducing network usage in the retrieval of ads, comprising:

determining, by executing an ad manager stored in a non-transitory memory that configures at least one processor on a mobile communication device, that an ad client embedded within each of a plurality of active applications on the mobile communication device is requesting an ad to display on the plurality of active applications based on a plurality of ad clients monitoring the plurality of active applications;

requesting, by the ad manager on the mobile communication device via a network, a plurality of ads from an ad gateway external to the mobile communication device, wherein the plurality of ads are obtained by the ad manager on the mobile communication device from the ad gateway instead of by each of the plurality of active applications on the mobile device individually establishing connections via the network with the ad gateway to request one or more ads;

receiving, by the ad manager via the network, the plurality of ads from the ad gateway in response to the requesting;

storing the plurality of ads to an ad cache of the mobile communication device via the ad manager;

controlling, by the ad manager, retrieval of the plurality of ads from the ad gateway and delivery of one or more of the plurality of ads to the plurality of active applications from the ad cache by;

in response to determining that the plurality of ad clients embedded in the plurality of active applications are requesting an ad, selecting at least one ad of the plurality of ads from the ad cache to display within an active application corresponding to a requesting ad client; and

in response to the ad clients requesting ads and the ad manager selecting the at least one ad, transmitting, by the ad manager, the at least one ad to the requesting ad client embedded in the corresponding active application based on the ad manager being a central point of control to disable and enable display and presentation of the plurality of ads received from the ad gateway, wherein the requesting ad client presents the at least one ad within the corresponding active application;

receiving, on the mobile communication device, a payload from a wireless service provider; and

in response to receiving the payload, disabling, via the ad manager, presentation of any ads in each type of active application based on the payload.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the payload is an open mobile alliance device management (OMA DM) payload, wherein the OMA DM payload is received by an OMA DM client stored within the non-transitory memory of the mobile communication device, and wherein the OMA DM payload comprises an OMA node that instructs the ad manager to disable presentation of ads on at least one of the plurality of active applications.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

subsequent to disabling presentation of ads based on the payload, receiving a second payload on the mobile communication device from the wireless service provider; and

in response to the second payload, enabling presentation of at least one ad in at least one of the plurality of active applications on the mobile communication device based on the second payload.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

selecting, by the ad manager, an ad from the ad cache that was previously presented in one of the plurality of active applications, and wherein the ad transmitted to the ad client in the one of the plurality of active applications is the previously presented ad.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the ad manager transmits a plurality of ads at one time to the plurality of ad clients of the plurality of active applications.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the ad manager monitors ad experiences and transmits an ad experience report one of every day, every two days, or every week.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein the mobile communication device is configured to communicate using a radio transceiver according to at least one of:

a code division multiple access (CDMA) wireless protocol, a global system for mobile communications (GSM) wireless protocol, a long term evolution (LTE) wireless protocol, or a worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) wireless protocol, or a wireless local area network communication protocol.