Systems and methods for data packet metadata stabilization

• US 10,333,857 B1
• Filed: 08/12/2016
• Issued: 06/25/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pearson Education Incorporated (Pearson plc)
• Original Assignee: Pearson Education Incorporated (Pearson plc)
• Inventors: Anderson, Jacob
• Primary Examiner(s): Choudhry, Samina F
• Application Number:
  US15/236,103
• Time in Patent Office: 1,047 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/00 Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/365 Dynamic adaptation of the packet size
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/561 Adding application-functional data or data for application control, e.g. adding metadata

Abstract

Systems and methods for accelerated stabilization of data packet metadata are disclosed herein. The system can include a memory having a content database and a user profile database. The system can include a user device having a first network interface and a first I/O subsystem. The system can include one or more servers. The one or more servers can: retrieve data packet metadata for a data packet; determine that the data packet metadata is unstable; identify a set of potential recipients of the data packet; select one of the set of potential recipients as the recipient of the data packet; provide the data packet to the recipient of the data packet; receive a response from the recipient to the provided data packet; and automatically update the data packet metadata based on the response received from the recipient.

Claims

1. A system for stabilization of data packet metadata, the system comprising:

memory comprising;

a content database comprising a plurality of data packets and metadata identifying an attribute of an associated data packet, wherein each of the plurality of data packets is associated with unique metadata;

a user profile database comprising user history data identifying an attribute of an associated user, wherein each user is associated with unique user history data;

a user device comprising;

a first network interface configured to exchange data via a communication network; and

a first I/O subsystem configured to convert received information to user interpretable outputs via a user interface; and

one or more servers, wherein the server communicatively coupled with the memory and the user device is configured to;

identify a data packet, wherein the data packet comprises content for delivery to a user device;

retrieve data packet metadata from the content database of the memory, wherein the data packet metadata identifies a difficulty level of the data packet;

determine that the data packet metadata is unstable, wherein determining that the data packet metadata is unstable comprises;

retrieving a stability threshold identifying a minimum number of received user responses subsequent to the providing of the data packet;

extracting a value indicative of the number of received responses subsequent to the providing of the data packet from the data packet metadata; and

comparing the stability threshold and the value indicative of the number of received responses subsequent to the providing of the data packet from the metadata;

select a recipient for receipt of the data packet based on a correspondence between the data packet metadata and user data for the recipient;

provide the data packet to the recipient of the data packet;

receive a response from the recipient to the provided data packet; and

automatically update the data packet metadata based on the response received from the recipient.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more servers comprise a response processor, and wherein the response processor is configured to translate the received response into an observable.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein translating the received response into an observable comprises evaluating the received response to determine if the received response is a desired response.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein updating the data packet metadata comprises updating a model of the difficulty of the data packet.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the model of the difficulty of the data packet comprises a piecewise Gaussian distribution model.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the one or more servers are configured to repeatedly:

identify a set of potential recipients of the data packet;

select one of the set of potential recipients as the recipient of the data packet based on a correspondence between the data packet metadata and user data for the recipient;

provide the data packet to the recipient of the data packet;

receive a response from the recipient to the provided data packet; and

automatically update the data packet metadata based on the response received from the recipient, until the one or more servers determine that the data packet metadata is stable.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the one or more servers are further configured to add an indicator of stability to the data packet metadata when the one or more servers determine that the data packet metadata is stable.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the one or more servers are further configured to:

automatically generate an alert comprising an indicator of the stability of the data packet metadata when the one or more servers determine that the data packet metadata is stable; and

send the alert to a supervisor device.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the alert comprises a computer code configured to direct the supervisor device to automatically launch an application that displays an indicator of the metadata stability.

10. A method for stabilization of data packet metadata, the method comprising:

(a) identifying a data packet, wherein the data packet comprises content for delivery to a user device;

(b) retrieving data packet metadata from a memory comprising a content library database, wherein the data packet metadata identifies a difficulty level of the data packet;

(c) determining that the data packet metadata is unstable, wherein determining that the data packet metadata is unstable comprises;

retrieving a stability threshold identifying a minimum number of received user responses subsequent to the providing of the data packet;

extracting a value indicative of the number of received responses subsequent to the providing of the data packet from the data packet metadata; and

comparing the stability threshold and the value indicative of the number of received responses subsequent to the providing of the data packet from the metadata

(d) selecting a recipient for receipt of the data packet based on a correspondence between the data packet metadata and user data for the recipient;

(e) providing the data packet to the recipient of the data packet;

(f) receiving a response from the recipient to the provided data packet; and

(g) automatically updating the data packet metadata based on the response received from the recipient.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising repeating steps (a)-(g) until the data packet metadata is stable.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein selecting a recipient comprises:

identifying a set of potential recipients of the data packet; and

(i) selecting one potential recipient of the set of potential recipients for analysis;

(ii) determining a load level for the selected one potential recipient of the set of potential recipients; and

(iii) adding a value indicative of acceptability when a predicted load level is less than a load threshold.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein selecting one potential recipient of the set of potential recipients as the recipient of the data packet comprises generating a predicted load value, wherein the predicted load value comprises the determined load level for the selected one potential recipient of the set of potential recipients update to include the load effect of receipt of the data packet.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

retrieving the load threshold;

comparing the predicted load value to the load threshold; and

removing the selected one potential recipient of the set of potential recipients from the set of potential recipient when the predicted load level is greater than the load threshold.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising repeating steps (i)-(iii) when it is determined that there are additional potential recipients in the set of potential recipients that have not been selected in step (i).

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising designating a recipient associated with the value indicative of acceptability when it is determined that there are no additional potential recipients in the set of potential recipients that have not been selected in step (i).