System and method for managing and provisioning streamed data

• US 7,680,912 B1
• Filed: 07/27/2001
• Issued: 03/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/18/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Comcast Cable Communications Management LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Comcast Cable Communications Management LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Inventors: McNabb, James, Battle, Ben
• Primary Examiner(s): STRANGE, AARON N
• Application Number:
  US09/915,287
• Time in Patent Office: 3,154 Days
• Field of Search: 709/231, 709/218, 709/238, 709/203, 709/223, 709/232, 709/239, 709/204, 370/386, 370/449, 705/400, 705/26, 726 3- 5, 726/27, 726/29
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/185 with management of multicast group membership
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/044 comprising hierarchical management structures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0807 using tickets, e.g. Kerberos cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using tickets or tokens H04L9/3213
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/611 for multicast or broadcast systems for broadcast or conference H04L12/18; arrangements for broadcast or distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/00; arrangements for broadcast applications with a direct linkage to broadcast information or to broadcast space-time H04H60/00; selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS], H04W4/06

Abstract

A system and method for managing and provisioning streamed data by controlling, measuring and monitoring access to multicasted and/or unicasted data over a network includes a director, a hierarchy of participant managers, and a turnstile installed at each participant to which the data is to be delivered. Content providers provide information associated with an event (i.e., data) to the director. The director oversees the delivery of the event to a participant. In particular, the director provisions network resources and provides a ticket to the event to the participant. The participant acquires the ticket, either directly or indirectly from the director. When the participant attempts to access the event, the locally installed turnstile authenticates the ticket thereby gating access to the event. The turnstile also provides delivery statistics associated with the delivery of the event to the director via the hierarchy of participant managers.

Claims

1. A system for managing a plurality of participants to an event comprising:

a plurality of participant manager devices installed within a network communication system and logically connected in a hierarchy amongst themselves and between a director device and a plurality of participant devices, wherein each of the participant manager devices is assigned a level within the hierarchy, and wherein each of the participant manager devices is configured to automatically determine its position within the hierarchy when entering the hierarchy by performing the following;

transmitting an announce message to other participant manager devices in the hierarchy;

identifying a current upstream participant manager device as being one level higher than the entering participant manager computing device;

iteratively comparing hierarchy levels of participant manager devices responding to the announce message to identify responding participant manager devices having a hierarchy level between the current upstream participant manager device and the entering participant manager device; and

in response to identifying a responding participant manager device having a hierarchy level between the current upstream participant manager device and the entering participant manager device, transmitting an attach message to the responding participant manager device having a hierarchy level between the current upstream participant manager device and the entering participant manager device.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a participant device, wherein the participant device is configured to send delivery statistics regarding an associated participant to a connected participant manager device;

and

wherein said plurality of participant manager devices propagates said delivery statistics upstream through said hierarchy to said director device.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein each of said plurality of participant manager devices is configured to aggregate delivery statistics from participants beneath it in said hierarchy.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a participant device, wherein the participant device is configured to:

receive an electronic ticket from a participant;

perform a first authentication on the ticket; and

if the ticket passes the first authentication, forward the ticket to a corresponding participant manager device for authentication.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein said connected participant manager device is configured to communicate authorization to the participant device that forwarded the ticket, upon determining said ticket is authentic.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a participant device configured to prevent an associated participant from receiving an event until a ticket associated with the event is determined to have been provided to said associated participant.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein a ticket associated with an event includes first authentication information and second authentication information, wherein the first authentication information is used by the turnstile to locally determine whether the ticket is a valid ticket, and the second authentication information is used by the connected participant manager to determine whether the valid ticket is authentic.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a director device, wherein the director device is a server configured to allocate a fixed number of tickets to an event.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the director server is configured to allocate the fixed number of tickets among the plurality of participant manager devices.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising a director device, wherein the director device is a server configured to allocate a fixed number of tickets to content providers.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the participant manager devices are further configured to:

in response to identifying a responding participant manager device having a same hierarchy level as the current upstream participant manager device, determining whether to update the identified current upstream participant manager device by comparing a distance between the entering participant manager device and responding participant manager device having the same hierarchy level as the current upstream participant manager device, with a distance between the current upstream participant manager device and the entering participant manager device.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the distances between devices are based on a number of hops needed for communications between the devices.

13. A method of adding a new device to a device hierarchy, comprising:

adding a new participant manager device to a communication network having a plurality of participant manager devices arranged in a hierarchy, wherein the new participant manager device is assigned a level in the hierarchy;

transmitting, from the new participant manager device, an announcement message to the plurality of participant manager devices;

iteratively comparing, for responses received at the new participant manager device from responding participant manager devices, a hierarchy level of the responding device with a hierarchy level of a current next-step-upstream participant manager device; and

in response to determining that the responding device has a level in between the level of the current next-step-upstream device and the new participant manager device, transmitting an attachment message from the new participant manager device to the responding device, and storing information identifying the responding device as the new current next-step-upstream participant manager device.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

the new participant manager device being managed by the current next-step-upstream participant manager device.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

in response to determining that a responding device has a level equal to a level of the current next-step-upstream device, using a distance comparison to determine which of the two equal-level devices should be the managing device for the new participant manager device.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the distance comparison further comprises determining which of the devices being compared is closest to the new participant manager device within a communication network.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the distance is based on a number of hops needed for two devices to communicate with one another within the communication network.