SYSTEMS, METHODS, AND APPARATUS TO MONITOR MOBILE INTERNET ACTIVITY

• US 20120042005A1
• Filed: 08/14/2010
• Published: 02/16/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/14/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Yonker, Michael Andrew, Papakostas, Achilleas
• Granted Patent: US 8,886,773 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/00 Indexing scheme associated with group H04L61/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/663 Transport layer addresses, e.g. aspects of transmission control protocol [TCP] or user datagram protocol [UDP] ports
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/10 of different types
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0281 Proxies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0815 providing single-sign-on or federations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1408 by monitoring network traffic monitoring network traffic per se H04L43/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• 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: H04M 3/2254 in networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/72 Subscriber identity

Abstract

Systems, methods, and apparatus to monitor mobile Internet activity are disclosed. An example method comprises receiving a request for Internet content on a port of a proxy, the request originating from a mobile device transmitting requests via a cellular wireless access point; associating the request for Internet content with a mobile device based on the first port; requesting content from an Internet content provider identified in the request for Internet content, the Internet content provider being different than the proxy; and transmitting the content.

Claims

1. A method to monitor Internet activity comprising:

receiving a request for Internet content on a port of a proxy, the request originating from a mobile device transmitting requests via a cellular wireless access point;

associating the request for Internet content with a mobile device based on an identifier of the first port;

requesting content from an Internet content provider identified in the request for Internet content, the Internet content provider being different than the proxy; and

transmitting the content.

2. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein transmitting the content comprises transmitting the content via the first port.

3. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising storing the request for Internet content in a database.

4. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising storing the requested Internet content in a database.

5. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising not servicing the request for Internet content if the request originated from an Internet Protocol address outside of an IP address range.

6. The method as described in claim 5, wherein the IP range is a range of IP addresses representing devices on a cellular network.

7. The method as described in claim 1, wherein the port is within a range of at least one of dynamic and private ports.

8. The method as described in claim 1, wherein requests for Internet content are received on a number of ports of the proxy corresponding to a number of panelists in a panel.

9. The method as described in claim 8, wherein the panel comprises sixty panelists.

10. The method as described in claim 8, wherein the panel comprises fifteen hundred panelists.

11. The method as described in claim 1, wherein the request for Internet content is un-authenticated.

12. A method to monitor Internet activity, the method comprising:

designating a first client device to transmit content requests via a first port of a proxy;

designating a second client device to transmit content requests via a second port of the proxy, the second port being different from the first port;

receiving a first content request on the first port from the first client device;

receiving a second content request on the second port from the second client;

transmitting first content identified by the first content request to the first client device;

transmitting second content identified by the second content request to the second client device; and

storing an identifier of the first content requested by the first content request in association with the first client devices based on an identity of the first port.

13. The method as described in claim 12, further comprising storing a portion of the first content in association with the first client device.

14. The method as described in claim 12, wherein storing the identifier of the first content requested by the first content request further comprises associating a first panelist identifier associated with the first client device with the identifier of the first content.

15. The method as described in claim 14, wherein the first panelist identifier is an identifier of the first port.

16. The method as described in claim 12, wherein designating the first client device to transmit content requests via the first port further comprises transmitting an identifier of the first port and an Internet address of the proxy to the first client device to cause the first client device to transmit subsequent requests for content to the first port of the proxy.

17. The method as described in claim 16, wherein transmitting the first port identifier and the Internet address of the proxy further comprises generating a configuration file containing the first port identifier and the Internet address of the proxy.

18-26. -26. (canceled)

27. A method to monitor Internet activity, the method comprising:

assigning a number of different mobile devices to communicate with respective ones of a number of different ports of a proxy server, the number of mobile devices and number of ports corresponding to a number of panelists in a panel;

receiving an un-authenticated request for Internet content via one of the number of mobile devices based on the number of ports; and

using the one of the number of ports to identify the mobile device associated with the request.

28. The method as described in claim 27, wherein the panel comprises at least sixty panelists.

29. The method as described in claim 27, wherein the panel comprises at least fifteen hundred panelists.

30. The method as described in claim 27, wherein the number of ports are within a range from port 49152 to port 65535.

31. The method as described in claim 27, further comprising storing an identification of the content requested by the request in association with the identified client device.

32-43. -43. (canceled)