Content discovery in managed wireless distribution networks

• US 9,384,334 B2
• Filed: 05/12/2014
• Issued: 07/05/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/12/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Burba, Alexander, Hunt, Brandon T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Song, Hosuk
• Application Number:
  US14/275,761
• Publication Number:
  US 20150324555A1
• Time in Patent Office: 785 Days
• Field of Search: 726 26- 30, 713/150, 713/193, 380/270, 709223-226
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/105 Arrangements for software license management or administration, e.g. for managing licenses at corporate level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1065 Discovery involving distributed pre-established resource-based relationships among peers, e.g. based on distributed hash tables [DHT] pre-configuration of logical or physical connections H04L67/1053
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1068 Discovery involving direct consultation or announcement among potential requesting and potential source peers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/08 User group management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/08 Mobility data transfer
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

A content store is maintained in a device, the device being one of multiple devices in a managed wireless distribution network that allows portions of protected content to be transferred among the multiple devices via multiple wireless networks hosted by various ones of the multiple devices. The content store is configured to maintain portions of protected content that can be consumed by a user of the device only if the user of the device is licensed to consume the protected content. An indication of portions of protected content stored in the content store is provided to each of a set of the multiple devices or to a network management service. Routes to portions of content in the managed wireless distribution network can be identified by the network management service or the multiple devices.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

maintaining a content store in a device, the device being one of multiple devices in a managed wireless distribution network that allows portions of protected content to be transferred among the multiple devices via multiple wireless networks hosted by various ones of the multiple devices, the content store being configured to maintain portions of protected content that can be consumed by a user of the device only if the user of the device is licensed to consume the protected content;

providing, to each of a first set of the multiple devices, an indication of portions of protected content stored in the content store;

receiving a catalog from another of the multiple devices identifying portions of protected content that the other device hosts; and

providing, to each of the first set of the multiple devices, an indication of the portions of protected content that the other device of the multiple devices hosts.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, the indication of portions of protected content stored in the content store comprising a catalog identifying the portions.

3. A method as recited in claim 2, further comprising filtering portions of protected content so that protected content having a particular rating is not included in the catalog.

4. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising providing to each of the first set of multiple devices, for each portion of protected content, an indication of a number of additional devices to be accessed in order to access the portion of protected content.

5. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising receiving catalogs from other ones of the multiple devices, and determining one of the multiple devices from which to obtain a particular portion of the protected content based on the received catalogs.

6. A method as recited in claim 5, the catalog received from a particular device including metadata identifying one or more characteristics of the particular device, and the method further comprising using the metadata in determining routes to ones of the multiple devices.

7. A method as recited in claim 6, the one or more characteristics including data transfer rates of a wireless network hosted by the particular device.

8. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising selecting one route from multiple routes through the managed wireless distribution network to a particular portion of protected content stored on one of the multiple devices, and using the selected one route through the managed wireless distribution network to obtain the particular portion of protected content from the one device.

9. A method as recited in claim 1, the providing the indication of portions of protected content stored in the content store to each of the first set of the multiple devices comprising providing the indication of portions of protected content stored in the content store in response to a change in the portions of protected content stored in the content store.

10. A device comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more computer-readable storage media having stored thereon multiple instructions that, responsive to execution by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform acts comprising;

maintaining a content store in the device, the device being one of multiple devices in a managed wireless distribution network that allows portions of protected content to be transferred among the multiple devices via multiple wireless networks hosted by various ones of the multiple devices, the content store being configured to maintain portions of protected content that can be consumed by a user of the device only if the user of the device is licensed to consume the protected content;

providing to a network management service an indication of portions of protected content stored in the content store;

receiving from the network management service metadata identifying one or more characteristics of the multiple devices; and

using the metadata in determining routes to ones of the multiple devices.

11. A device as recited in claim 10, the indication of portions comprising a catalog identifying the portions.

12. A device as recited in claim 10, the acts further comprising receiving from the network management service indications of portions of protected content stored by other ones of the multiple devices, and determining one of the multiple devices from which to obtain a particular portion of the protected content based on the received indications.

13. A device as recited in claim 10, the one or more characteristics including a number of network interface cards included in each of the multiple devices.

14. A method implemented in a network management service, the method comprising:

receiving, from multiple devices in a managed wireless distribution network, indications of portions of protected content hosted by the multiple devices, the managed wireless distribution network allowing portions of protected content to be transferred among the multiple devices via multiple wireless networks hosted by various ones of the multiple devices, each of the multiple devices being configured to maintain portions of protected content that can be consumed by a user of the device only if the user of the device is licensed to consume the protected content;

receiving from the multiple devices updates to the indications of portions of protected content hosted by the multiple devices as the portions of protected content hosted by the multiple devices changes;

identifying routes through the managed wireless distribution network to ones of the portions of protected content stored on one of the multiple devices; and

providing, to the multiple devices, indications of the identified routes.

15. A method as recited in claim 14, further comprising identifying the routes based at least in part on an amount of time until one or more of the multiple devices are expected to have the portion of protected content.

16. A method as recited in claim 14, further comprising identifying the routes based on a topology of the managed wireless distribution network.

17. A method as recited in claim 14, further comprising identifying the routes based on historical analysis of the multiple devices.

18. A method as recited in claim 14, further comprising receiving from each of the multiple devices metadata identifying one or more characteristics of the device, and using the metadata in identifying routes to ones of the multiple devices.

19. A method as recited in claim 18, the metadata including an indication of whether virtual network interface cards are supported by the device.

20. A method as recited in claim 14, further comprising filtering portions of protected content so that portions of protected content having a particular rating are not included in the indications of portions of protected content hosted by the multiple devices.

21. A device comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more computer-readable storage media having stored thereon multiple instructions that, responsive to execution by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform acts comprising;

maintaining a content store in the device, the device being one of multiple devices in a managed wireless distribution network that allows portions of protected content to be transferred among the multiple devices via multiple wireless networks hosted by various ones of the multiple devices, the content store being configured to maintain portions of protected content that can be consumed by a user of the device only if the user of the device is licensed to consume the protected content;

providing, to each of a first set of the multiple devices, an indication of portions of protected content stored in the content store;

receiving a catalog from another of the multiple devices identifying portions of protected content that the other device hosts; and

providing, to each of the first set of the multiple devices, an indication of the portions of protected content that the other device of the multiple devices hosts.

22. A device as recited in claim 21, the indication of portions of protected content stored in the content store comprising a catalog identifying the portions, and the acts further comprising filtering portions of protected content so that protected content having a particular rating is not included in the catalog.

23. A device as recited in claim 21, the acts further comprising selecting one route from multiple routes through the managed wireless distribution network to a particular portion of protected content stored on one of the multiple devices, and using the selected one route through the managed wireless distribution network to obtain the particular portion of protected content from the one device.

24. A method comprising:

maintaining a content store in a device, the device being one of multiple devices in a managed wireless distribution network that allows portions of protected content to be transferred among the multiple devices via multiple wireless networks hosted by various ones of the multiple devices, the content store being configured to maintain portions of protected content that can be consumed by a user of the device only if the user of the device is licensed to consume the protected content;

providing to a network management service an indication of portions of protected content stored in the content store;

receiving from the network management service metadata identifying one or more characteristics of the multiple devices; and

using the metadata in determining routes to ones of the multiple devices.

25. A method as recited in claim 24, further comprising receiving from the network management service indications of portions of protected content stored by other ones of the multiple devices, and determining one of the multiple devices from which to obtain a particular portion of the protected content based on the received indications.

26. A network management service implemented on one or more devices, the network management service comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more computer-readable storage media having stored thereon multiple instructions that, responsive to execution by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform acts comprising;

receiving, from multiple devices in a managed wireless distribution network, indications of portions of protected content hosted by the multiple devices, the managed wireless distribution network allowing portions of protected content to be transferred among the multiple devices via multiple wireless networks hosted by various ones of the multiple devices, each of the multiple devices being configured to maintain portions of protected content that can be consumed by a user of the device only if the user of the device is licensed to consume the protected content;

receiving from the multiple devices updates to the indications of portions of protected content hosted by the multiple devices as the portions of protected content hosted by the multiple devices changes;

identifying routes through the managed wireless distribution network to ones of the portions of protected content stored on one of the multiple devices; and

providing, to the multiple devices, indications of the identified routes.

27. A network management service as recited in claim 26, the acts further comprising identifying the routes based at least in part on an amount of time until one or more of the multiple devices are expected to have the portion of protected content.

28. A network management service as recited in claim 26, the acts further comprising filtering portions of protected content so that portions of protected content having a particular rating are not included in the indications of portions of protected content hosted by the multiple devices.