Interactive personal/internet protocol television reservation system, reservation plan management method and device

• US 9,445,162 B2
• Filed: 07/17/2013
• Issued: 09/13/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/15/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ZTE Corporation
• Original Assignee: ZTE Corporation
• Inventors: Ji, Jian
• Primary Examiner(s): EKPO, NNENNA NGOZI
• Application Number:
  US14/434,488
• Publication Number:
  US 20150264448A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,154 Days
• Field of Search: 725/58, 725/61, 725/93, 725/100, 725/110, 725/115
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2181 comprising remotely distributed storage units, e.g. when movies are replicated over a plurality of video servers distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS], H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/231 Content storage operation, e.g. caching movies for short term storage, replicating data over plural servers, prioritizing data for deletion
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2393 involving handling client requests scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/254 Management at additional data server, e.g. shopping server, rights management server arrangements for maintenance or administration in data networks H04L41/00; network services using third party service providers H04L67/53
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25833 involving client hardware characteristics, e.g. manufacturer, processing or storage capabilities allocation of resources considering hardware capabilities in multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/5044; allocation of resources considering software capabilities in multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/5055
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/262 Content or additional data distribution scheduling, e.g. sending additional data at off-peak times, updating software modules, calculating the carousel transmission frequency, delaying a video stream transmission, generating play-lists scheduling strategies for dispatcher in multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/4881; arrangements for scheduling broadcast services or broadcast-related services H04H60/06; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10; establishing a time schedule or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/62
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4147 PVR [Personal Video Recorder] H04N5/76 takes precedence ; arrangements for broadcast with accumulation-type receivers H04H20/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4334 Recording operations recording of a television signal H04N5/76; arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4583 Automatically resolving scheduling conflicts, e.g. when a recording by reservation has been programmed for two programs in the same time slot
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47214 for content reservation or setting reminders; for requesting event notification, e.g. of sport results or stock market stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; notification of incoming messages in packet switching networks H04L51/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64322 IP
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6543 for forcing some client operations, e.g. recording remote booting in general G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6581 Reference data, e.g. a movie identifier for ordering a movie or a product identifier in a home shopping application

Abstract

An Interactive Personal/Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) reservation system, and a reservation plan management method and device are provided. A reservation server receives a reservation plan addition request initiated by a DVR set top box, wherein the reservation plan addition request carries a reservation plan to be added; the reservation server obtains from the shared storage server an added reservation plan which corresponds to the DVR set top box and has been added by a user; and the reservation server performs a conflict processing on the reservation plan to be added, when determining that the reservation plan to be added exceeds a recording ability of the DVR set top box according to the obtained added reservation plan. Accordingly, a problem in the related art that the load of a reservation server is too heavy and a failure processing ability of a system is relatively weak is solved, the load of the reservation server is reduced, and the failure processing ability is improved.

Claims

1. An Interactive Personal/Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) reservation system, comprising a Digital Video Recorder (DVR) set top box, at least two reservation servers, and a shared storage server;

wherein;

the DVR set top box is a set top box having a local recording function and a recording ability, and is configured to initiate a reservation plan addition request, wherein the reservation plan addition request carries a reservation plan to be added, wherein a number of reservation plans can be simultaneously executed by the DVR set top box, which can be identified as the recording ability of the DVR set top box;

the at least two reservation servers each is connected with the DVR set top box, and is configured to receive the reservation plan addition request initiated by the DVR set top box, and configured to obtain from the shared storage server added reservation plans which correspond to the DVR set top box and have been added by a user and to perform, when determining that the reservation plan to be added exceeds the recording ability of the DVR set top box according to the obtained added reservation plans, a conflict processing on the reservation plan to be added; and

the shared storage server is connected to the at least two reservation servers, and is configured to store the added reservation plans which correspond to the DVR set top box and have been added by the user,

wherein determining that the reservation plan to be added exceeds the recording ability of the DVR set top box according to the obtained added reservation plans comprising;

determining, by one of the reservation servers, added reservation plans which involve a recording time coinciding with a recording time of the reservation plan to be added; and

determining, by one of the reservation servers, that the reservation plan to be added exceeds the recording ability of the DVR set top box, after determining, according to the coincident added reservation plans, that the reservation plan to be added will exceed the recording ability of the DVR set top box if the reservation plan to be added is added,

wherein performing the conflict processing on the reservation plan to be added comprising;

determining, by one of the reservation servers, a set of reservation plans which make the reservation plan to be added exceed the recording ability of the DVR set top box, in the coincident added reservation plans;

determining, by one of the reservation servers, a priority order between each reservation plan in the set of the reservation plans and the reservation to be added; and

when priority of the reservation plan to be added is higher than priority of one or more reservation plans in the set of the reservation plans, adding, by one of the reservation servers, the reservation plan to be added, and deleting reservation plans having lowest priority one by one in sequence in the set of the reservation plans until the reservation plan to be added does not exceed the recording ability of the DVR set top box,

wherein after one of the reservation servers receives the reservation plan addition request initiated by the DVR set top box and when the reservation server has a failure, selecting a reservation server which does not fail currently to respond to the reservation plan addition request, according to loads of reservation servers which do not fail currently.

2. The system according to claim 1, further comprising an IPTV service system database, connected with the shared storage server and configured to store reservation plan data information and/or time stamp data synchronized to the IPTV service system database by the shared storage server.

3. A reservation plan management method, comprising:

receiving, by a reservation server, a reservation plan addition request initiated by a Digital Video Recorder (DVR) set top box, wherein the reservation plan addition request carries a reservation plan to be added, wherein the DVR set top box is a set top box having a local recording function and a recording ability, wherein a number of reservation plans can be simultaneously executed by the DVR set top box, which can be identified as the recording ability of the DVR set top box;

obtaining, by the reservation server, added reservation plans which correspond to the DVR set top box and have been added by a user from a shared storage server; and

performing, by the reservation server, a conflict processing on the reservation plan to be added, when the reservation server determines that the reservation plan to be added exceeds the recording ability of the DVR set top box according to the obtained added reservation plans,

wherein determining, by the reservation server, that the reservation plan to be added exceeds the recording ability of the DVR set top box according to the obtained added reservation plans comprising;

determining, by the reservation server, added reservation plans which involve a recording time coinciding with a recording time of the reservation plan to be added; and

determining, by the reservation server, that the reservation plan to be added exceeds the recording ability of the DVR set top box, after determining, according to the coincident added reservation plans, that the reservation plan to be added will exceed the recording ability of the DVR set top box if the reservation plan to be added is added,

wherein performing, by the reservation server, the conflict processing on the reservation plan to be added comprising;

determining, by the reservation server, a set of reservation plans which make the reservation plan to be added exceed the recording ability of the DVR set top box, in the coincident added reservation plans;

determining, by the reservation server, a priority order between each reservation plan in the set of the reservation plans and the reservation to be added; and

when priority of the reservation plan to be added is higher than priority of one or more reservation plans in the set of the reservation plans, adding, by the reservation server, the reservation plan to be added, and deleting reservation plans having lowest priority one by one in sequence in the set of the reservation plans until the reservation plan to be added does not exceed the recording ability of the DVR set top box,

the method further comprising;

after the reservation server receives the reservation plan addition request initiated by the DVR set top box and when the reservation server has a failure, selecting a reservation server which does not fail currently to respond to the reservation plan addition request, according to loads of reservation servers which do not fail currently.

4. The method according to claim 3, further comprising after the reservation server receives the reservation plan addition request initiated by the DVR set top box and determines that a time difference between current time and completion time of the reservation plan to be added is smaller than a predetermined threshold, notifying, by the reservation server, the DVR set top box of that the reservation plan to be added is not allowed to be added.

5. The method according to claim 3, wherein the reservation server determines the priority order between each reservation plan in the set of the reservation plans and the reservation plan to be added in accordance with at least one of following rules:

priority of a reservation plan of episodes is higher than priority of a reservation plan of series; and

priority of a reservation plan of an episode which is set earlier is higher than priority of a reservation plan of an episode which is set later.

6. The method according to claim 3, further comprising:

after the reservation server adds the reservation plan to be added, generating, by the reservation server, corresponding reservation plan data information and/or time stamp data according to the added reservation plan, and synchronizing the generated reservation plan data information and/or the time stamp data to the shared storage server, wherein the time stamp data comprises time indicating addition of the reservation plan.

7. The method according to claim 6, further comprising:

synchronizing, by the shared storage server, the reservation plan data information and/or the time stamp data to an Interactive Personal/Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) service system database, after the reservation server synchronizes the generated reservation plan data information and/or the time stamp data to the shared storage server.

8. The method according to claim 3, wherein the reservation plan to be added comprises a reservation plan of an episode.

11. The method according to claim 4, wherein the reservation plan to be added comprises a reservation plan of an episode.

9. A reservation server, comprising:

a receiving unit, configured to receive a reservation plan addition request initiated by a Digital Video Recorder (DVR) set top box, wherein the reservation plan addition request carries a reservation plan to be added, wherein the DVR set top box is a set top box having a local recording function and a recording ability, wherein a number of reservation plans can be simultaneously executed by the DVR set top box, which can be identified as the recording ability of the DVR set top box;

an obtaining unit, configured to obtain added reservation plans which corresponds to the DVR set top box and have been added by a user, from a shared storage server;

a determining unit, configured to trigger a conflict processing unit when determining the reservation plan to be added exceeds the recording ability of the DVR set top box according to the obtained added reservation plans; and

the conflict processing unit, configured to perform a conflict processing on the reservation plan to be added,

wherein the determining unit comprises a third determining sub-unit configured to determine added reservation plans which involve a recording time coinciding with a recording time of the reservation plan to be added; and

a forth determining sub-unit, configured to determine that the reservation plan to be added exceeds the recording ability of the DVR set top box, after determining, according to the coincident added reservation plans, that the reservation plan to be added will exceed the recording ability of the DVR set top box if the reservation plan to be added is added, wherein the conflict processing unit comprises;

a first processing sub-unit, configured to determine a set of reservation plans which make the reservation plan to be added exceed the recording ability of the DVR set top box, in the coincident reservation plans;

a second processing sub-unit, configured to determine a priority order between each reservation plan in the set of the reservation plans and the reservation plan to be added; and

a third processing sub-unit, configured to, when priority of the reservation plan to be added is higher than priority of one or more reservation plans in the set of the reservation plans, add the reservation plan to be added, and delete the reservation plans having lowest priority one by one in sequence in the set of the reservation plans, until the reservation plan to be added does not exceed the recording ability of the DVR set top box,

wherein after the reservation server receives the reservation plan addition request initiated by the DVR set top box and when the reservation server has a failure, selecting a reservation server which does not fail currently to respond to the reservation plan addition request, according to loads of reservation servers which do not fail currently.

10. The reservation server according to claim 9, wherein the determining unit comprises a first determining sub-unit, configured to trigger a second determining sub-unit when determining that a time difference between current time and completion time of the reservation plan to be added is smaller than a predetermined threshold;

and

the second determining sub-unit, configured to notify the DVR set top box of that the reservation plan to be added is not allowed to be added.