Release-time based prioritization of on-board content

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11811666-B2
Application number	US-202117562670-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 27, 2021
Priority date	Apr 18, 2018
Publication date	Nov 7, 2023
Grant date	Nov 7, 2023

Abstract

Approaches are described for release-time-driven (RTD) prioritization of on-board content scheduling and delivery to in-transit transport craft via communications systems. In context of a constrained network, content is scheduled to be delivered to those in-transit on-board media servers in a manner driven by respective release times and other prioritization factors associated with the updated content. Each content is associated with a RTD priority profile that can define a release time, a release priority, and a profile plot for the content. The RTD priority profiles can be used to compute priority surfaces that define priority scores over a multidimensional space for a particular time. A subset of the content can be selected for delivery based on the priority surfaces, and can be scheduled for delivery according to network capacity determinations.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for release-time driven prioritized delivery of on-board content to on-board media servers disposed on a plurality of transport crafts via a communications network, the method comprising:
identifying a plurality of release-time-driven (RTD) priority profiles, each of the plurality of RTD priority profiles being associated with a respective content file set of a plurality of content file sets, each of the plurality of content file sets having an assigned release time and an assigned release priority score,
wherein each of the plurality of the RTD priority profiles defines priority scores over a range of times for delivery of the respective content file set via the communications network, the range of times comprising a first time window during which the priority scores are less than the assigned release priority score of the respective content file set, and a second time window succeeding the first time window and comprising the assigned release time of the respective content file set, the priority scores equaling the release priority score during at least a portion of the second time window;
selecting a plurality of delivery files as a function of associated RTD priority profiles to be content file sets of the plurality of content file sets for which the priority scores of the associated RTD priority profiles for a selected time are above a priority threshold; and
scheduling, as a function of available network capacity associated with the selected time for the communications network, the plurality of delivery files for delivery over the communications network to the on-board media servers at the selected time.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining the available network capacity for the communications network associated with the selected time.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
computing the priority threshold as a function of the available network capacity, such that the plurality of delivery files fills the available network capacity.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the assigned release priority score of a first content file set is different from the assigned release priority score of a second content file set.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the range of times further comprises a third time window succeeding the second time window during which the priority scores are less than the assigned release priority score of the respective content file set.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the priority scores during the first time window increase over the first time window until reaching the assigned release priority score in the second time window.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the priority scores equal the assigned release priority score during the entirety of the second time window.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising selecting the on-board media servers from among a plurality of on-board media servers, such that each selected one of the on-board media servers is disposed on one of the plurality of transport crafts that is in transit at the selected time.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the plurality of delivery files is a first plurality of delivery files;
the selecting comprises selecting a second plurality of delivery files as a function of the associated RTD priority profiles to be content file sets of the plurality of content file sets for which the priority scores of the associated RTD priority profiles for the selected time are within a first range of priority scores below the priority threshold; and
the scheduling comprises:
assigning the first plurality of delivery files to a first priority queue communicated by the communications network according to a first priority delivery; and
assigning the second plurality of delivery files to a second priority queue communicated by the communications network according to a second priority delivery lower than the first priority delivery.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the scheduling further comprises assigning other network traffic destined for the plurality of transport crafts to a third priority queue communicated by the communications network according to a third priority delivery higher than the second priority delivery.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the other network traffic is requested by client devices on-board the plurality of transport crafts.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the third priority delivery is lower than the first priority delivery.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein:
the selecting further comprises selecting a third plurality of delivery files as a function of the associated RTD priority profiles to be content file sets of the plurality of content file sets for which the priority scores of the associated RTD priority profiles for the selected time are within a second range of priority scores below the priority threshold and above the first range; and
the assigning further comprises assigning the third plurality of delivery files to the third priority queue.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the communications network is a multi-carrier communications network;
the method further comprises selecting the on-board media servers from among a plurality of on-board media servers, such that each selected one of the on-board media servers is disposed on one of the plurality of transport crafts associated with a particular carrier of the communication network for the selected time; and
the scheduling comprises scheduling the plurality of delivery files for delivery over the particular carrier to the on-board media servers at the selected time.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein:
the selected time is a future time, such that the on-board media servers are predicted to be concurrently serviced by the particular carrier at the selected time; and
the scheduling comprises multicasting the plurality of delivery files over the particular carrier to the on-board media servers at the selected time.

16. The method of claim 14 , further comprising:
aggregating the priority scores of the associated RTD priority profiles for the selected time for each of the plurality of content file sets across all of the on-board servers to form respective aggregated priority scores; and
the selecting comprises selecting, as the plurality of delivery files, content file sets of the plurality of content file sets for which the respective aggregated priority scores are above the priority threshold.

17. The method of claim 14 , wherein the selecting further comprises:
determining, for each of the plurality of the on-board media servers, a predicted transit path; and
selecting the on-board media servers predicted to be concurrently serviced by the particular carrier at the selected time according to the predicted transit paths.

18. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying the plurality of content file sets from a content server;
generating, for each of the plurality of content file sets, the respective RTD priority profile; and
associating each of the respective RTD priority profiles with the respective content file set.

19. A system for release-time driven prioritized delivery of on-board content to on-board media servers disposed on a plurality of transport crafts via a communications network, the system comprising:
a content processor comprising:
a content network interface to communicate with a content network having, stored thereon, a plurality of content file sets; and
a profile store having stored thereon a plurality of release-time-driven (

Assignees

• Viasat Inc

Inventors

• Newman Daniel
• Mcneil David

Classifications

• H04L47/24 Primary

  Traffic characterised by specific attributes, e.g. priority or QoS · CPC title

• H04L47/58 Primary

  Changing or combining different scheduling modes, e.g. multimode scheduling · CPC title

• H04L67/5681

  Pre-fetching or pre-delivering data based on network characteristics · CPC title