Personal server and network

• US 20060010203A1
• Filed: 06/15/2004
• Published: 01/12/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/15/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: British Broadcasting Corporation, Nokia Corporation
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Mrsic-Flogel, Janko, Yeager, William J., Rahkila, Sakari
• Application Number:
  US10/868,115
• Publication Number:
  US 20060010203A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/205
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1072 Discovery involving ranked list compilation of candidate peers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4126 The peripheral being portable, e.g. PDAs or mobile phones

Abstract

Provided are improved systems and methods for networking and internetworking personal servers and associated end-user devices in a modified peer-to-peer (P2P) format, or Peerouette-Net. A personal server, or peersona, may be part of a network of peersonas where each peersona represents a user of the Peerouette-Net. Associated with each peersona are the devices of the user, or edge-peers, that communicate with the peersona and through the peersona as part of the Peerouette-Net. The Peerouette-Net is a modified P2P network in that it consists of two levels of connection between end-user devices, rather than one level of end-user devices. The software that executes in the peersonas rather than the software that executes in the edge-peers may facilitate the P2P nature and functionality of the Peerouette-Net.

Claims

1. A network system, comprising:

at least two interconnected modulators, wherein each of said modulators comprises at least one peersona;

at least two edge-peers, wherein each of said edge-peers is associated with one of said peersonas.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of said peersonas is associated with at least two of said edge-peers.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of said modulators comprises at least two peersonas.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

at least one site, wherein said site comprises at least one modulator; and

at least one region, wherein said region comprises at least two sites.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein one of said modulators of said site is a local modulator of said site to coordinate communication with and between modulators of said site and provide routing within said site as a site routing authority.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

at least one region, wherein said region comprises at least two modulators; and

a regional authority associated with said region and interconnected with each of said modulators in said region.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein at least two of said peersonas are organized in a peersona community.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein one of said peersonas of said peersona community is the creator of said peersona community.

9. A peersona system, comprising:

a modulator;

a peersona stored by said modulator; and

at least one edge-peer associated with said peersona.

10. The peersona system of claim 9, wherein said peersona stores at least some of the content for said edge-peer.

11. The peersona system of claim 9, wherein said peersona comprises a content escrow that stores at least some of the content for said peersona.

12. The peersona system of claim 11, wherein said content escrow maintains said content until digital rights management clearance for access or sharing of said content in said content escrow.

13. The peersona system of claim 9, wherein said peersona is capable of communicating with at least one of said edge-peers using a peersona-edge-peer communication protocol.

14. The peersona system of claim 9, wherein said edge-peer is selected from the group consisting of a mobile phone, a pager, an electronic gaming system, a portable multimedia system, a personal music system, a personal digital assistant, a personal-portable electronic device, a personal computer, a television set device, and a dedicated device.

15. A modulator system, comprising:

a memory segmented to store data representing at least one user entity; and

a processor interoperably coupled to said memory and capable of generating a network connection and an end-user device connection, and wherein said processor is further capable of transferring information to and from said memory with at least one end-user device.

16. The modulator system of claim 15, further comprising a site-wide modulator map that lists active modulator bindings at a site of the modulator system.

17. The modulator system of claim 15, further comprising a bandwidth monitoring module to monitor and record bandwidth usage of said network and end-user device connections.

18. A method of performing networking, comprising the steps of:

creating a plurality of peersonas, wherein each of said peersonas represents one user of a network, and wherein each of said peersonas is resident on one of at least two modulators;

internetworking said modulators; and

associating at least one edge-peer with each of said peersonas.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising the step of dividing computer program code for an application or a service of one of said edge-peers between said edge-peer and said peersona associated with said edge-peer.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising the steps of:

distributing updated computer program code to said modulators; and

updating computer program code of at least one of said peersonas using at least a portion of said updated computer program code, wherein said updating of computer program code of said peersona updates at least a portion of divided computer program code for an application or a service of said peersona wherein an associated edge-peer includes at least a portion of divided computer program code for the same application or service.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising the step of updating at least a portion of divided computer program code of an edge-peer associated with said peersona, wherein said updated divided computer program code is for one of the computer program codes selected from the group of:

(1) the same application or service as the updated divided computer program code of said peersona, (2) the operating system of said edge-peer, and (2) the communication protocol between said edge-peer and said associated peersona.

22. The method of claim 18, further comprising the steps of:

distributing updated computer program code to said modulators;

updating computer program code of said peersonas using at least a portion of said updated computer program code; and

updating computer program code of at least one of said edge-peers using at least a portion of said updated computer program code.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising the step of inspecting information of computer program code of said edge-peers to determine whether computer program code of said edge-peers is to be updated with at least a portion of said updated computer program code.

24. The method of claim 18, further comprising the step of performing configuration management of at least one of said modulators, peersonas, or edge-peers.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein performing configuration management includes deploying application or service computer program code or modifying at least one setting.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein deploying computer program code comprises deploying an application or service computer program code, an operating system for an edge-peer, or a communication protocol between an edge-peer and a peersona.

27. The method of claim 18, further comprising the step of storing a peer-to-peer computer program code for said network in said peersonas.

28. The method of claim 18, further comprising the step of storing an edge-peer-to-peersona communication protocol computer program code in said edge-peers, wherein said edge-peer-to-peersona communication protocol computer program code facilitates communication between said edge-peers and said associated peersonas of said edge-peers.

29. The method of claim 18, further comprising the step of communicating between two personas of at least one modulator, wherein each of the edge-peers associated with at least one of said peersonas is at least temporarily disconnected from or unavailable to said peersona.

30. The method of claim 18, further comprising the step of distributing at least one data file to at least one of said modulators, said peersonas, or said edge-peers.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein distributing said at least one data file comprises distributing at least one data file comprising multimedia content or information associated with digital rights management of a user.

32. The method of claim 31, further comprising determining at least one source of said content by using a peersona community silent chat protocol.

33. The method of claim 18, further comprising the step of backing up one of said edge-peers onto said peersona associated with said backed-up edge-peer to create a backup of said backed-up edge-peer.

34. The method of claim 33, further comprising the step of restoring an edge-peer from said backup of said backed-up edge-peer, wherein said resorted edge-peer is said backed-up edge-peer or a different edge-peer.

35. The method of claim 18, wherein the step of internetworking said modulators includes the step of requesting a site-wide modulator map.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein the step of internetworking said modulators when there are no other registered modulators at the site of a requesting modulator includes requesting notification from a central host of registrations of other modulators at the site of the requesting modulator.

37. The method of claim 18, further comprising the step of messaging a sequential keep-alive token ring of said modulators to update the site-wide modulator map at each of said modulators, wherein said messaging begins either with notification by a central host to a registered modulator of registration of a modulator or periodically by a registered modulator.

38. The method of claim 18, further comprising the step of delivering at least one content file simultaneously or pseudo-simultaneously to two or more edge-peers of one of said peersonas by said peersona of said edge-peers.

39. The method of claim 18, further comprising the step of accessing content on at least one of said edge-peers.

40. The method of claim 39, wherein said accessing comprises at least one of viewing, playing, or displaying said content.

41. The method of claim 39, wherein said accessing comprises simultaneously accessing said content on at least two edge-peers.

42. The method of claim 41, wherein said accessing content on at least two edge-peers comprises accessing said content using at least two different coding schemes.

43. The method of claim 42, wherein said accessing content on at least two edge-peers comprises using one coding scheme on at least two of said edge-peers and a second coding scheme on at least another of said edge-peers.

44. The method of claim 41, wherein said accessing content on at least two edge-peers comprises using one coding scheme on said edge-peers.

45. The method of claim 18, further comprising the step of transcoding at least part of at least one content data file for at least one-edge peer, wherein said transcoding is performed by one of said modulator.

46. The method of claim 45, wherein said transcoding comprises transcoding all of at least one content data file.

47. The method of claim 45, wherein said transcoding is performed by a processor of one of said modulators.

48. The method of claim 47, wherein at least one of said edge-peers is associated with one of said peersonas resident on said modulator performing said transcoding.

49. The method of claim 47, wherein at least one of said edge-peers is associated with one of said peersonas not resident on said modulator performing said transcoding.

50. The method of claim 18, further comprising the steps of:

acquiring digital rights for content for a first community; and

providing said content from a modulator or peersona of a second community to at least one modulator or peer of said first community.

51. The method of claim 50, further comprising the step of transcoding said content by one of said modulators of said second community.