Facilitating client decisions

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2020344320-A1
Application number	US-202016870640-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	May 8, 2020
Priority date	Nov 15, 2006
Publication date	Oct 29, 2020
Grant date	—

Abstract

Facilitating a decision of a content player is disclosed. In some cases, performance information associated with a content player is received. The information is received from a client. A determination is made that an update should be sent to the client. The update is sent to the client. In other cases, information is received from an external entity. Based at least in part on the received information, an instruction is sent to a content player.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . (canceled)

2 . A system, comprising:
a processor configured to:
receive, from a first remote client, performance information associated with a first content player;
based at least in part on at least some of the performance information associated with the first content player, determine that at least one setting associated with obtaining content should be should be updated for a second remote client that is different from the first remote client; and
based at least in part on determining that the at least one setting should be updated for the second remote client, facilitate updating of the at least one setting for the second remote client; and
a memory coupled to the processor and configured to provide the processor with instructions.

3 . The system of claim 2 wherein the processor is configured to determine, based at least in part on the at least some of the performance information associated with the first content player, a content distribution problem.

4 . The system of claim 3 wherein the processor is configured to localize the content distribution problem to one or more of a content delivery network and an Internet service provider.

5 . The system of claim 3 wherein the processor is further configured to determine that the second remote client is implicated in the content distribution problem, and wherein facilitating updating of the at least one setting for the second remote client is based at least in part on the determination that the second remote client is implicated in the content distribution problem.

6 . The system of claim 5 wherein facilitating updating of the at least one second remote client comprises opening a connection with the second remote client implicated in the content distribution problem and transmitting a command directly to the second remote client to make a change to the at least one setting.

7 . The system of claim 5 wherein facilitating updating of the at least one second remote client comprises transmitting, to the second remote client, a list of alternative content sources usable to obtain content, and wherein the second remote client is configured to locally select a content source from the list of alternative content sources.

8 . The system of claim 3 wherein the content distribution problem is determined to be associated with a content delivery network, wherein the second remote client is affected by the content distribution problem associated with the content delivery network, and wherein facilitating updating of the at least one setting for the second remote client comprises instructing the second remote client to reduce a streaming rate.

9 . The system of claim 8 wherein the processor is further configured to instruct a third remote client joining the content delivery network to use a lower streaming rate.

10 . The system recited in claim 2 wherein the processor is configured to facilitate updating of the at least one setting for the second remote client at least in part by updating a configuration file, wherein the second remote client is configured to read the updated configuration file, and wherein the at least one setting for the second remote client is updated based at least in part on the reading of the updated configuration file.

11 . The system recited in claim 2 , wherein facilitating updating of the at least one setting for the second remote client comprises opening a connection to the second remote client and sending a command to the second remote client to update the at least one setting.

12 . A method, comprising:
receiving, from a first remote client, performance information associated with a first content player; based at least in part on at least some of the performance information associated with the first content player, determining that at least one setting associated with obtaining content should be should be updated for a second remote client that is different from the first remote client; and based at least in part on determining that the at least one setting should be updated for the second remote client, facilitating updating of the at least one setting for the second remote client.

13 . The method of claim 12 comprising determining, based at least in part on the at least some of the performance information associated with the first content player, a content distribution problem.

14 . The method of claim 13 comprising localizing the content distribution problem to one or more of a content delivery network and an Internet service provider.

15 . The method of claim 13 further comprising determining that the second remote client is implicated in the content distribution problem, and wherein facilitating updating of the at least one setting for the second remote client is based at least in part on the determination that the second remote client is implicated in the content distribution problem.

16 . The method of claim 15 wherein facilitating updating of the at least one second remote client comprises opening a connection with the second remote client implicated in the content distribution problem and transmitting a command directly to the second remote client to make a change to the at least one setting.

17 . The method of claim 15 wherein facilitating updating of the at least one second remote client comprises transmitting, to the second remote client, a list of alternative content sources usable to obtain content, and wherein the second remote client is configured to locally select a content source from the list of alternative content sources.

18 . The method of claim 13 wherein the content distribution problem is determined to be associated with a content delivery network, wherein the second remote client is affected by the content distribution problem associated with the content delivery network, and wherein facilitating updating of the at least one setting for the second remote client comprises instructing the second remote client to reduce a streaming rate.

19 . The method of claim 18 further comprising instructing a third remote client joining the content delivery network to use a lower streaming rate.

20 . The method of claim 12 comprising facilitating updating of the at least one setting for the second remote client at least in part by updating a configuration file, wherein the second remote client is configured to read the updated configuration file, and wherein the at least one setting for the second remote client is updated based at least in part on the reading of the updated configuration file.

21 . The method of claim 12 , wherein facilitating updating of the at least one setting for the second remote client comprises opening a connection to the second remote client and sending a command to the second remote client to update the at least one setting.

22 . A computer program product embodied in a non-transitory computer readable storage medium and comprising computer instructions for:
receiving, from a first remote client, performance information associated with a first content player; based at least in part on at least some of the performance information associated with the first content player, determining that at least one setting associated with obtaining content should be should be updated for a second remote client that is different from the first remote client; and based at least in part on determining that the at least one setting should be updated for the second remote client, facilitating updating of the at least on

Assignees

• Conviva Inc

Inventors

• Ganjam Aditya R
• Huebsch Ryan J
• Lakshminarayanan Karthik K
• Hu Ningning
• Stoica Ion
• Zhang Hui
• Zhan Jibin

Classifications

• G06F11/3006 Primary

  where the computing system is distributed, e.g. networked systems, clusters, multiprocessor systems (multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50) · CPC title

• H04L65/756

  adapting media to device capabilities · CPC title

• H04L67/60

  Scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests, e.g. requests for application data transmissions using the analysis and optimisation of the required network resources (admission control or resource allocation H04L47/70) · CPC title

• H04L67/61

  taking into account QoS or priority requirements · CPC title

• H04L67/535

  Tracking the activity of the user (network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34) · CPC title