System architecture, and method for scheduled downloading services

#This application claims the benefit, under 35 U.S.C. §365 of International Application PCT/US2005/003070, filed Jan. 31, 2005, which was published in accordance with PCT Article 21(2) on Aug. 17, 2006 in English.

#This application is related to a U.S. utility patent application Ser. No. 10/498,402, entitled “Apparatus and Methods for Delayed Network Information Transfer”, filed on Dec. 6, 2002, which is commonly assigned, and the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

#The present invention generally relates to information transfer in communication networks and, more particularly, to a system, primitives corresponding to the system, and a method, for scheduled downloading services.

#FIG. 1 is a high-level block diagram illustrating a system 100 for scheduled downloading services to which the present invention may be applied, according to an illustrative embodiment of the present invention;

#FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a table of primitives that are supported by the system 100 of FIG. 1, according to an illustrative embodiment of the present invention; and

#FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for downloading content through a Content Delivery/distribution Network (CDN), according to an illustrative embodiment of the present invention.

#The present invention is directed to a system, primitives corresponding to the system, and a method, for scheduled downloading services. Advantageously, the present invention allows for the requesting and consumption of content by different devices. Moreover, the present invention allows for the request and the consumption of the content to be performed at different times and at different locations. Accordingly, the present invention advantageously optimizes network resource utilization and reduces the cost of content delivery to the consumer.

#Thus, in the example given above regarding the mobile user who wants to order a movie but is concerned about the cost of using cellular airtime for downloading the movie, the user would be able to order the movie using his/her cellular telephone and then the movie could be downloaded to another device belonging to the user such as, for example, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a video recorder, a video player, and so forth. The request and consumption of the movies could be performed at different times and from different locations. For example, the user could order the movie while on the road on his/her way home from work using his/her cellular telephone, and the movies could be downloaded later by the user's video player at the user's home or by the user's laptop at a hotspot that the user is stopping at on the way home. Thus, the mobile user in above example can use cellular network to access the movie server's website to make the order and later can download the movie content through wireless LAN at low cost and fast speed.

#It is to be understood that the present invention may be implemented in various forms of hardware, software, firmware, special purpose processors, or a combination thereof. Preferably, the present invention is implemented as a combination of hardware and software. Moreover, the software is preferably implemented as an application program tangibly embodied on a program storage device. The application program may be uploaded to, and executed by, a machine comprising any suitable architecture. Preferably, the machine is implemented on a computer platform having hardware such as one or more central processing units (CPU), a random access memory (RAM), and input/output (I/O) interface(s). The computer platform also includes an operating system and microinstruction code. The various processes and functions described herein may either be part of the microinstruction code or part of the application program (or a combination thereof) that is executed via the operating system. In addition, various other peripheral devices may be connected to the computer platform such as an additional data storage device and a printing device.