Peer-to-peer content distribution

• US 10,348,820 B2
• Filed: 01/20/2017
• Issued: 07/09/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 01/20/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Subbian, Karthik
• Primary Examiner(s): Tang, Karen C
• Application Number:
  US15/411,190
• Publication Number:
  US 20180213033A1
• Time in Patent Office: 900 Days
• Field of Search: 709207
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1091 Interfacing with client-server systems or between P2P systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

Certain embodiments described herein relate to peer-to-peer content distribution. In one embodiment, a method includes a first device receiving content and determining a content categorization of the received content. The first device may detect a second computing device and communicate with that it through a direct wireless connection (e.g., Bluetooth). Through the direct wireless connection, the first device may receive information associated with a user of the second computing device from the second device. Based on the information associated with the user and the content categorization of the content, the first device may determine a likelihood of the user being interested in the content. The first device may push the content to the second computing device through the direct wireless connection based on the likelihood of the user being interested in the content.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

by a first computing device, receiving content;

by the first computing device, determining a content categorization of the received content;

by the first computing device, detecting a second computing device within a peer-to-peer network;

by the first computing device, communicating with the second computing device through a first short-range wireless connection;

by the first computing device, receiving, from the second computing device and through the first short-range wireless connection, information associated with a user of the second computing device;

by the first computing device, calculating, based on the information associated with the user and the content categorization of the content, a confidence score representing a first likelihood of the user of the second computing device that is located within range of the first short-range wireless connection from the first computing device being interested in receiving the content offline from the first computing device through the first short-range wireless connection; and

by the first computing device, pushing the content offline from the first computing device to the second computing device within the peer-to-peer network through the first short-range wireless connection based on the confidence score being above a certain threshold.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the content is received by the first computing device from a third computing device through a second short-range wireless connection between the first computing device and the third computing device.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

by the first computing device, determining that the content is publically available;

wherein the pushing of the content to the second computing device is based on the determination that the content is publically available.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the information associated with the user of the second computing device is an interest profile of the user.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

by the first computing device, pushing the content to a third computing device through a second short-range wireless connection between the first computing device and the third computing device;

wherein the pushing of the content to the second computing device and the pushing of the content to the third computing device occur substantially simultaneously.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

by the first computing device, determining, for a plurality of content, corresponding content categorizations;

by the first computing device, determining, for the plurality of content, corresponding confidence scores representing likelihoods of the user of the second computing device being interested in the plurality of content based on the information associated with the user and the content categorizations; and

by the first computing device, pushing a subset of the plurality of content offline from the first computing device to the second computing device within the peer-to-peer network based on the confidence scores associated with the subset of the plurality of content being above the certain threshold.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

by the first computing device, sending the first likelihood of the user being interested in the content to the second computing device; and

by the first computing device, receiving from the second computing device an indication of acceptance of the content;

wherein the pushing of the content from the first computing device to the second computing device is in response to the indication of acceptance.

8. The method of claim 7,

wherein the first likelihood of the user being interested in the content is used by the second computing device to compare with other likelihoods of the user being interested in other contents that are stored on other computing devices;

and

wherein the other likelihoods are sent from the other computing devices to the second computing device.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

by the first computing device, estimating an amount of time needed for transmitting the content from the first computing device to the second computing device; and

by the first computing device, determining that the first short-range wireless connection with the second computing device is stable based on the estimated amount of time needed.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the estimating of the amount of time needed is based on a distance between the first computing device and the second computing device.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the determining that the short-range wireless connection is stable is based on relative movement information between the first computing device and the second computing device.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

by the first computing device, receiving cluster information from the second computing device, the cluster information being associated with a cluster of devices to which the second computing device belongs;

by the first computing device, determining a second likelihood of users associated with the cluster of devices being interested in the content based on the cluster information and the content categorization of the content;

wherein the pushing of the content to the second computing device is further based on the second likelihood.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the cluster information comprises an interest profile of the users associated with the cluster of devices.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the cluster is defined based on geographic locations of the cluster of devices at a predetermined time period.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein at least one of the devices in the cluster of devices is not within direct wireless communication range with the first computing device when the first computing device is communicating with the second computing device through the first short-range wireless connection.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the content is received from a server, the method further comprising:

by the first computing device, receiving from the server routing instructions for the content; and

by the first computing device, pushing the routing instructions to the second computing device;

wherein the pushing of the content to the second computing device is further based on the routing instructions.

17. The method of claim 16,

wherein the routing instructions comprise a routing destination, the routing destination being one or more devices associated with a cluster of devices;

wherein the routing destination is determined by the server based on an interest profile of the cluster of devices and the content.

18. The method of claim 16,

wherein the routing instructions comprise a direction from the first computing device to a routing destination, the routing destination being a geographic location associated with a cluster of devices;

wherein the routing destination is determined by the server based on an interest profile of the cluster of devices and the content.

19. One or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media of a first computing device embodying software that is operable when executed to:

receive content;

determine a content categorization of the received content;

detect a second computing device within a peer-to-peer network;

communicate with the second computing device through a first short-range wireless connection;

receive, from the second computing device through the first short-range wireless connection, information associated with a user of the second computing device;

calculate, based on the information associated with the user and the content categorization of the content, a confidence score representing a first likelihood of the user of the second computing device that is located within range of the first short-range wireless connection from the first computing device being interested in receiving the content offline from the first computing device through the first short-range wireless connection; and

push the content offline from the first computing device to the second computing device within the peer-to-peer network through the first short-range wireless connection based on the confidence score being above a certain threshold.

20. A first computing device, comprising:

one or more processors; and

a memory coupled to the processors comprising instructions executable by the processors, the processors being operable when executing the instructions to;

receive content;

determine a content categorization of the received content;

detect a second computing device within a peer-to-peer network;

communicate with the second computing device through a first short-range wireless connection;

receive, from the second computing device through the first short-range wireless connection, information associated with a user of the second computing device;

calculate, based on the information associated with the user and the content categorization of the content, a confidence score representing a first likelihood of the user of the second computing device that is located within range of the first short-range wireless connection from the first computing device being interested in receiving the content offline from the first computing device through the first short-range wireless connection; and

push the content offline from the first computing device to the second computing device within the peer-to-peer network through the first short-range wireless connection based on the confidence score being above a certain threshold.