Private Content Distribution Network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016013980-A1
Application number	US-201514673682-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 30, 2015
Priority date	Jul 11, 2014
Publication date	Jan 14, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

The description relates to personal content distribution networks. One example can identify devices that are associated with a set of users and that are proximate to a location and obtain operational information about the devices. The example can establish a PCDN for the devices at the location. The PCDN can be configured to obscure identification of the devices to entities outside the PCDN and to aggregate content that may be requested by individual users among multiple individual devices.

First claim

1 . A method performed by one or more computing devices, comprising:
identifying Internet of Things (IoT) devices requesting to join a local area network at a location; obtaining operational information about the IoT devices; establishing a private content delivery network (PCDN) for the IoT devices at the location utilizing the local area network; receiving a content request from an individual IoT device; determining whether the content already exists on another individual IoT device of the PCDN; in an instance where the content does not already exist on the PCDN, requesting the content from an entity that is external to the PCDN, wherein the requesting does not disclose information about the individual IoT device; temporarily aggregating portions of the content among multiple IoT devices; and, causing individual aggregated portions of the content to be sent to the individual IoT device in a manner that satisfies the content request.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining whether the content already exists on another individual IoT device of the PCDN comprises referencing an aggregation data table associated with the PCDN and determining if the content or a portion of the content is indexed on the aggregation data table.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the requesting the content from the entity that is external to the PCDN comprises requesting the content utilizing an internet protocol (IP) address that is not associated with the individual IoT device.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining a likelihood that the content will be requested again within a defined period of time by the individual IoT device or another individual IoT device of the PCDN, and further comprising determining whether to maintain the temporarily aggregated portions based upon the likelihood.

5 . One or more computer-readable storage media having computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor of a device, cause the device to perform a method, comprising:
identifying devices that are associated with a set of users and that are proximate to a location; obtaining operational information about the devices; and, establishing a private content delivery network (PCDN) for the devices at the location, wherein the PCDN is configured to obscure identification of the devices to entities outside the PCDN and to aggregate content that may be requested by individual users among multiple individual devices.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the identifying devices comprises identifying devices registering on a local area network employed by the PCDN.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the local area network and the devices are controlled by a single entity or wherein at least some of the devices are controlled by a service provider and operated on behalf of the single entity.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the single entity is a family, or wherein the single entity is an organization.

9 . The method of claim 5 , further comprising analyzing user activities on an individual device of the PCDN and predicting future content usage based upon the activities and attempting to prefetch the future content.

10 . The method of claim 6 , further comprising analyzing activities of an individual user across multiple devices and predicting future content usage based upon the activities and attempting to prefetch the future content.

11 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising storing the prefetched content in an aggregated manner over multiple of the devices of the PCDN.

12 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the PCDN comprises a wired or wireless local area network.

13 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the PCDN comprises multiple Internet access points.

14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the multiple Internet access points include a physical Internet access point and a cellular Internet access point.

15 . A system, comprising:
a processor and storage; an aggregation data table stored on the storage and that lists content stored on devices of a private content delivery network (PCDN); and, a PCDN component that is executed by the processor and is configured to receive content requests from individual devices of the PCDN and to access the aggregation data table to determine whether the content is stored within the PCDN, and in an instance where the content is not stored on the PCDN, the PCDN component is configured to obtain the requested content as a sub-set of retrieved content and to update the aggregation data table to reflect the retrieved content.

16 . The system of claim 15 , embodied on a single device or wherein the aggregation data table is manifest on a first device and the PCDN component is manifest on a second different device.

17 . The system of claim 16 , wherein the single device is one of the devices or wherein the single device is not one of the devices.

18 . The system of claim 16 , wherein the single device has access to another network over which to obtain the retrieved content.

19 . The system of claim 15 , wherein the PCDN component functions in a master role and the devices function in a slave role.

20 . The system of claim 19 , wherein the PCDN component comprises a first instance of the PCDN component that can work cooperatively with another instance of the PCDN component on another device in a shared master role.

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Mcknight Gregory Joseph
• Gauthier David Thomas

Classifications

• H04L67/1097 Primary

  for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS] · CPC title

• H04L67/10 Primary

  in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network (software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46) · CPC title

• H04L63/10

  for controlling access to devices or network resources · CPC title

• H04L41/0813 Primary

  characterised by the conditions triggering a change of settings · CPC title

• H04L67/5681 Primary

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