Wireless delivery of broadcast data

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10694237-B2
Application number	US-201715828297-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 30, 2017
Priority date	Aug 4, 2017
Publication date	Jun 23, 2020
Grant date	Jun 23, 2020

Abstract

Systems and methods for improved efficiency in content streaming and downloading. The system enables a first list including a plurality of user equipment (UE) in communication with a wireless base station (WBS) to be identified based on the likelihood that each UE will download a piece of content. The process starts in response to a UE requesting the content from the WBS or some other triggering event. The system can use the content and subscriber history from the plurality of UEs along with machine learning, or some other algorithm, to identify likely candidates. The system can calculate a similarity score, or similar, comparing the requested content to the content history for each of the plurality of UEs. The system can add each UE with a sufficiently high similarity score to a second list. The content can be broadcast to all UEs on the second list in a single broadcast transmission.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving, at a transceiver of a wireless base station (WBS), a request from a first user equipment (UE) for a first content;
transmitting, from the transceiver of the WBS to a transceiver of a content-management server, the request for the first content and a first list including a first plurality of UEs connected to the WBS;
receiving, at the transceiver of the WBS from the transceiver of the content-management server, the first content and a second list including a second plurality of UEs that is at least a subset of the first plurality of UEs from the first list, the second plurality of UEs are to receive the first content, wherein (i) the second list includes at least the first UE and a second UE and (ii) a similarity score between first attributes of the first content and second attributes of a content history for the second UE is above a predetermined threshold;
determining a confidence score associated with the second UE based at least in part on a cache availability of the second UE; and
sending, with the transceiver of the WBS, the first content to the first UE and, based at least in part on the confidence score, the second UE.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first content includes a first category; and
wherein a second content in the content history for the second UE is in the first category.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first content comprises an episode of a TV show or podcast; and
wherein the content history for the second UE includes at least one other episode of the TV show or podcast.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sending further comprises:
sending, with the transceiver of the WBS, the first content to the first UE at a first time; and
sending, with the transceiver of the WBS, the first content to the second plurality of UEs on the second list in a single broadcast at a second time;
wherein the second time is after the first time.

5. A method comprising:
receiving, at a transceiver of a content-management server, a request from a wireless base station (WBS) for a first content for a first user equipment (UE) and a first list including a plurality of UEs in communication with the WBS; and
selecting from the first list, with a processor of the content-management server, a second list comprising a subset of the plurality of UEs to receive the first content, wherein (i) the second list includes at least the first UE and a second UE and (ii) a similarity score between first attributes of the first content and second attributes of a content history for the second UE is above a predetermined threshold, the similarity score being based at least in part on a cache availability of the second UE.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising:
sending, with the transceiver of the content-management server to the WBS, the first content and the second list to cause the WBS to broadcast the first content to the second list in a single broadcast transmission;
wherein the second list includes the first UE.

7. The method of claim 5 , further comprising:
sending, with the transceiver of the content-management server to the WBS, the first content to cause the WBS to send the first content to the first UE at a first time; and
sending, with the transceiver of the content-management server to the WBS, the second list to cause the WBS to broadcast the first content to the second list in a single broadcast transmission at a second time;
wherein the second list does not include the first UE; and
wherein the second time is after the first time.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
determining, with the processor of the content-management server, that a network utilization for at least a portion of a cellular network associated with the WBS has fallen below a predetermined network utilization.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the second time is between 2 AM and 6 AM.

10. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
receiving, with the transceiver of the content-management server, a signal from a network entity associated with a cellular network associated with the WBS, the signal indicating that a network utilization for at least a portion of the cellular network associated with the WBS has fallen below a predetermined network utilization.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein predetermined network utilization is a network utilization below 40%.

12. A method comprising:
receiving, at a transceiver of a content-management server, a request from a wireless base station (WBS) for a first content for a first user equipment (UE) and a first list including a plurality of UEs in communication with the WBS;
receiving, at the transceiver of the content-management server, a content history for each UE of the plurality of UEs;
calculating, with a processor of the content-management server, a first similarity score for a second UE of the plurality of UEs, the first similarity score being based at least partly on:
a comparison between first attributes of the first content and second attributes of the content history for the second UE; and
a cache availability of the second UE;

determining, with the processor of the content-management server, that the first similarity score is above a predetermined threshold; and
sending, from the content-management server to the WBS, (1) a second list including at least the first UE and the second UE and (2) the first content to be broadcast to at least the first UE and the second UE in a single broadcast transmission.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:
calculating, with the processor of the content-management server, a second similarity score between the first attributes of the first content and third attributes of a content history for a third UE of the plurality of UEs; and
determining, with the processor of the content-management server, that the second similarity score is above a predetermined threshold;
wherein the second list includes at least the first UE, the second UE, and the third UE.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein calculating the first similarity score between the first attributes of the first content and the second attributes of the content history for the second UE comprises:
extracting, with the processor of the content-management server, one or more of the first attributes for the first content;
extracting, with the processor of the content-management server, one or more of the second attributes for a second content in the content history of the second UE; and
comparing, with the processor of the content-management server, the one or more first attributes from the first content with the one or more second attributes from the second content.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the one or more of the first attributes or the one or more of the second attributes comprise one or more of the group consisting of: keywords, websites, files sizes, and categories for the first content and second content.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein the one or more of the first attributes or the one or more of the second attributes comprise one or more keywords; and
wherein the first content and the second content have at least one keyword in common.

17. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:
receiving, at the transceiver of the content-management server, one or more additional statistics for the second UE;
determining, with the processor of the content-management server, that an available memory for the second UE is below a predetermined threshold; and
reducing, with the processor of the content-management s

Assignees

• T Mobile Usa Inc

Inventors

• Bongaarts Paul
• Gapin Andrew
• Escudero Otto Fonseca
• Kumar Dinesh
• Jacinto Marie Grace

Classifications

• H04L43/16 Primary

  Threshold monitoring · CPC title

• H04L65/612

  for unicast · CPC title

• H04L65/611

  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) · CPC title

• H04W40/24

  Connectivity information management, e.g. connectivity discovery or connectivity update · CPC title

• H04L65/80

  Responding to QoS · CPC title