Mobile carrier capability

• US 8,010,087 B2
• Filed: 08/20/2007
• Issued: 08/30/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/20/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Yerubandi, Venkata Narasimha Rao, Zhu, Tong
• Primary Examiner(s): Afshar; Kamran
• Assistant Examiner(s): WANG-HURST, KATHY W
• Application Number:
  US11/894,483
• Publication Number:
  US 20090052359A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,471 Days
• Field of Search: 4554141-4143, 455/3.04, 455/422.1, 455/424, 455/445, 455/560, 370/255, 370/352, 370/401
• US Class Current: 455/414.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability

Abstract

A network device and method are directed towards determining whether a carrier gateway is likely to be associated with a mobile carrier service. Content/service providers receive request for content along with a network address of a gateway device providing the request. If the network address is unknown, the content/service provider may be provided to a new gateway identifier that is configured to determine a likelihood that the gateway device is configured to provide services to mobile devices. Based, in part, on the determined likelihood, a gateway device'"'"'s capability may also be determined, such that the content/service provider may then select to provide a response, degrade a response, or reject a request for the content, service, or the like.

Claims

1. A method operating on one or more network devices configured for use in managing delivery of content over a network, comprising:

receiving a network address of an unknown carrier gateway, wherein the unknown carrier gateway is a carrier gateway that is unknown as to whether the carrier gateway is configured to provide services to a mobile device;

determining information about a network carrier service provider associated with the network address;

determining a percent likelihood that the unknown carrier gateway is configured to provide services to a mobile device based on the determined information about the network carrier service provider;

determining a capability for the unknown carrier gateway based on the likelihood and the information about the network carrier service provider;

receiving a request for content from the unknown carrier gateway;

determining a response to the request based, in part, on the capability, the percent likelihood that the unknown carrier gateway is configured to provide services to a mobile device, and the information about the network carrier service provider; and

providing the determined response to the unknown carrier gateway.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the response further comprises if the percent likelihood is above a threshold value, then providing the response in a format useable by a mobile device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the response further comprises if the percent likelihood is below a threshold value, providing a degraded performance in response to the request.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining information about a network carrier service provider associated with the network address further comprises employing a whois query to determine the information.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a percent likelihood that the unknown carrier gateway is configured to provide services to a mobile device further comprises, examining at least one of a name of the network carrier service provider, a whitelist, a blacklist, or a network domain, to determine the percent likelihood.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining information about a network carrier service provider further comprises receiving information from at least one of the network carrier service provider, or a third party feed consolidator.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving a network address further comprises receiving a usage log from a network device.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the network address is received with the request for content from the unknown carrier gateway.

8. A network device for managing delivery of content over a network, comprising:

a transceiver to send and receive data over the network; and

a processor that is operative to perform actions, including;

receiving a network address of an unknown carrier gateway, wherein the unknown carrier gateway is a carrier gateway that is unknown as to whether the carrier gateway is configured to provide services to a mobile device;

determining information about a network carrier service provider associated with the network address;

determining a percent likelihood that the unknown carrier gateway is configured to provide services to a mobile device based on the determined information about the network carrier service provider;

determining a capability for the unknown carrier gateway based on the likelihood and the information about the network carrier service provider; and

providing the capability, percent likelihood, and information about the network carrier service provider to a content provider, such that the content provider may provide a response to a request for content from the carrier gateway.

9. The network device of claim 8, wherein determining a percent likelihood that the unknown carrier gateway is configured to provide services to a mobile device further comprises, examining at least one of a name of the network carrier service provider, a whitelist, a blacklist, or a network domain, to determine the percent likelihood.

10. The network device of claim 8, wherein determining information about a network carrier service provider associated with the network address further comprises employing a whois query to determine the information.

11. The network device of claim 8, wherein the content provider may provide the response reformatted for a mobile device based in part, on the percent likelihood exceeding a defined threshold.

12. The network device of claim 8, wherein the content provider provides a degraded response to the unknown carrier gateway based in part on the capability for the unknown carrier gateway.

13. The network device of claim 8, wherein the determined capability for the unknown carrier gateway indicates that the carrier gateway is likely to be able to support one format of content, while likely to be unable to support at least one other format of content.

14. The network device of claim 8, wherein the network device is configured to push the capability, percent likelihood, and information about the network carrier service provider to a content provider.

15. A system for use in selectively enabling delivery of content over a network, comprising:

a carrier catalogue service that is configured and arranged to perform actions, including;

receiving a network address of an unknown carrier gateway, wherein the unknown carrier gateway is a carrier gateway that is unknown as to whether the carrier gateway is configured to provide services to a mobile device;

determining information about a network carrier service provider associated with the network address;

determining a percent likelihood that the unknown carrier gateway is configured to provide services to a mobile device based on the determined information about the network carrier service provider;

determining a capability for the unknown carrier gateway based on the likelihood and the information about the network carrier service provider; and

providing the capability, percent likelihood, and information about the network carrier service provider and unknown gateway over the network; and

a content provider that is configured and arranged to perform actions, including;

receiving a request for content from the unknown carrier gateway;

providing the network address to the carrier catalogue service;

receiving capability, percent likelihood, and information about the network carrier service provider; and

employing at least one of the capability, percent likelihood, or information about the network carrier service provider to determine a response to the request from the unknown carrier gateway; and

providing the determined response to the unknown carrier gateway.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein determining the response further comprises determining that the response is a degraded response.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein determining the response further comprises providing the response in a format useable by a mobile device.

18. The system of claim 15, determining a percent likelihood further comprises examining at least one characteristic of a network domain name associated with the unknown carrier gateway to determine the percent likelihood.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein employing at least one of the capability or information about the network carrier service provider, further comprises examining a service level agreement with the network carrier service provider, in part, to determine the response.