Dynamic client logging and reporting

• US 9,819,566 B1
• Filed: 05/01/2012
• Issued: 11/14/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Conviva Inc.
• Original Assignee: Conviva Inc.
• Inventors: Ganjam, Aditya R., Hu, Ningning, Awan, Asad K., Necula, George C., Stoica, Ion
• Primary Examiner(s): Doan, Duyen
• Application Number:
  US13/461,346
• Time in Patent Office: 2,023 Days
• Field of Search: 709223-225
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4625 Single bridge functionality, e.g. connection of two networks over a single bridge
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/065 related to network devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/00 Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD] real-time bi-directional transmission of motion video data H04N7/14 ; broadcast or conference over packet switching networks H04L12/18
• 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 21/44204 Monitoring of content usage, e.g. the number of times a movie has been viewed, copied or the amount which has been watched monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; protecting generic digital content where the protection is independent of the precise nature of the content G06F21/10; arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services in broadcast systems H04H60/31
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4424 Monitoring of the internal components or processes of the client device, e.g. CPU or memory load, processing speed, timer, counter or percentage of the hard disk space used error monitoring in general G06F11/30; arrangements for monitoring conditions of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/32; diagnosis, testing or measuring for television receivers H04N17/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6547 comprising parameters, e.g. for client setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38

Abstract

Controlling dynamic reporting of content distribution performance information from a client is disclosed. The content distribution performance information associated with the delivery of content is generated. The content distribution performance information is reported to a content distribution monitor at a first reporting level. In response to a triggering event, the first reporting level is changed to a second reporting level. Additional content distribution performance information is reported according to the second reporting level.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

one or more processors configured to;

generate content distribution performance information associated with a delivery of content;

report the content distribution performance information to a remote content distribution monitor at a first reporting level, wherein the first reporting level is associated with a minimal level of information;

based at least in part on an external instruction provided by the remote content distribution monitor, change the first reporting level to a second reporting level; and

report additional content distribution performance information according to the second reporting level, wherein the second reporting level is associated with more detailed information than the first reporting level; and

wherein a plurality of clients are configured to provide content distribution performance information at the first reporting level, wherein a subset of the clients in the plurality of clients are selected, based at least in part on an evaluation by the remote content distribution monitor of at least a portion of the content distribution performance information at the first reporting level provided by the plurality of clients, to provide additional information at the second reporting level, and wherein instructions are provided by the remote content distribution monitor to the subset of clients selected based at least in part on the evaluation of the at least portion of the content distribution performance information at the first reporting level provided by the plurality of clients; and

a memory coupled to the one or more processors and configured to provide the one or more processors with instructions.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the content distribution performance information reported at the first reporting level includes information obtained from a first and second module included in the system, and wherein reporting information at the second reporting level includes increasing the verbosity of information reported regarding the second module and not increasing the verbosity of information reported regarding the first module.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the first reporting level corresponds to a first predefined log level and wherein the second reporting level corresponds to a second predefined log level.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein reporting the additional content distribution performance information includes reporting information generated while the system was reporting to the remote content distribution monitor at the first reporting level.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the external instruction is provided by the remote content distribution monitor based at least in part on a performance metric exceeding a threshold.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the content comprises a video stream.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the content comprises an advertisement.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the system is a first system and wherein the external instruction is provided by the remote content distribution monitor based at least in part on a second system failing to connect.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the additional content distribution performance information comprises a summary of a buffering state.

13. The system of claim 1 wherein the subset of remote clients in the plurality of remote clients is selected based on one or more criteria including geography, associated Internet Service Provider (ISP), and associated Content Delivery Network (CDN).

14. The system of claim 1 wherein the subset of remote clients in the plurality of clients is selected based at least in part on a threshold number of concurrent clients allowed to send information at the second reporting level.

10. A method, comprising:

generating content distribution performance information associated with a delivery of content;

reporting the content distribution performance information to a remote content distribution monitor at a first reporting level, wherein the first reporting level is associated with a minimal level of information;

based at least in part on an external instruction provided by the remote content distribution monitor, changing the first reporting level to a second reporting level; and

reporting additional content distribution performance information according to the second reporting level, wherein the second reporting level is associated with more detailed information than the first reporting level; and

wherein a plurality of clients are configured to provide content distribution performance information at the first reporting level, wherein a subset of the clients in the plurality of clients are selected, based at least in part on an evaluation by the remote content distribution monitor of at least a portion of the content distribution performance information at the first reporting level provided by the plurality of clients, to provide additional information at the second reporting level, and wherein instructions are provided by the remote content distribution monitor to the subset of clients selected based at least in part on the evaluation of the at least portion of the content distribution performance information at the first reporting level provided by the plurality of clients.

11. A computer program product embodied in a non-transitory computer readable storage medium and comprising computer instructions for:

generating content distribution performance information associated with a delivery of content;

reporting the content distribution performance information to a remote content distribution monitor at a first reporting level, wherein the first reporting level is associated with a minimal level of information;

based at least in part on an external instruction provided by the remote content distribution monitor, changing the first reporting level to a second reporting level; and

reporting additional content distribution performance information according to the second reporting level, wherein the second reporting level is associated with more detailed information than the first reporting level; and

wherein a plurality of clients are configured to provide content distribution performance information at the first reporting level, wherein a subset of the clients in the plurality of clients are selected, based at least in part on an evaluation by the remote content distribution monitor of at least a portion of the content distribution performance information at the first reporting level provided by the plurality of clients, to provide additional information at the second reporting level, and wherein instructions are provided by the remote content distribution monitor to the subset of clients selected based at least in part on the evaluation of the at least portion of the content distribution performance information at the first reporting level provided by the plurality of clients.

12. A system, comprising:

a processor configured to;

receive, from a plurality of remote clients, content distribution performance information associated with a delivery of content to the remote clients, wherein the content distribution performance information is received in accordance with a first reporting level, and wherein the first reporting level is associated with a minimal level of information;

select, based at least in part on an evaluation of at least a portion of the content distribution performance information received in accordance with the first reporting level, a subset of the remote clients in the plurality of remote clients to provide additional content distribution performance information in accordance with a second reporting level; and

transmit, to the selected subset of remote clients, instructions to report the additional content distribution performance information in accordance with the second reporting level, wherein a remote client in the selected subset of remote clients is configured, based at least in part on a transmitted instruction, to change the first reporting level to the second reporting level; and

a memory coupled to the processor and configured to provide the processor with instructions.

15. The system of claim 12 wherein the subset of remote clients in the plurality of remote clients is selected based on one or more criteria including geography, associated Internet Service Provider (ISP), and associated Content Delivery Network (CDN).

16. The system of claim 12 wherein the subset of remote clients in the plurality of remote clients is selected based at least in part on a threshold number of concurrent clients allowed to send information at the second reporting level.