Systems and methods for generating a unique fingerprint aggregating set of unique tracking identifiers throughout request/response processing

#Interactive media devices may receive media content from a network of multiple components, e.g., a server-client network or a cloud-based network. Such a network may be locally based or spread geographically across multiple physical locations. The network may service a large number of users and receive a large volume of requests to be fulfilled in a short period of time. For example, multiple interactive media devices such as smart phones may request a live stream of a certain event in a short period of time. However, the network may be unable to handle the requests at such a rate and fail to fulfill every request as expected. For example, a user's data request may result in a retrieval error, a request time out, or other such responses from the network.

#Systems and methods are described herein for generating tracking identifiers in a network of multiple components, e.g., a server-client network, a cloud-based network, or another suitable network. A data request received from an end-user, e.g., a request for an audio packet, a video packet, or another suitable data request, may traverse through multiple components in the network in order to be fulfilled. For example, a data request from a user's smart phone may be received by a component in the network. The component may relay the data request to one or more components in the network to retrieve the requested data packet and respond to the user's smart phone with the requested data packet. However, if the network is serving a large number of users in a short period of time or having technical problems or another suitable issue that may delay or fail to fulfill the data request, the user's smart phone may receive an error accordingly.

#In order to address the network issues, a troubleshooting system may rely on information associated with the data request to determine the source of the issues. The troubleshooting system may automatically analyze the network issues based on information received from one or more hardware and/or software modules distributed in the network. Particularly, the data request may be associated with a fingerprint including a plurality of tracking identifiers that track the network components that the data request traversed through and provides information regarding the network components. The fingerprint may be retrieved in response to an Application Programming Interface (API) call from the troubleshooting system. For example, the fingerprint may include tracking identifiers of each network component that received the data request. The tracking identifiers may be combined to form the fingerprint. In some embodiments, tracking identifiers are generated at each processing level including processor, storage, application software, and other suitable levels. The tracking identifiers are combined to generate a unique fingerprint in connection with the data request.

#The above and other objects and advantages of the disclosure will be apparent under consideration of the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference characters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

#FIGS. 1 and 2 show illustrative display screens that may be used to provide media guidance application listings in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

#FIG. 3 shows an illustrative user equipment device in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

#The amount of content available to users in any given content delivery system can be substantial. Consequently, many users desire a form of media guidance through an interface that allows users to efficiently navigate content selections and easily identify content that they may desire. An application that provides such guidance is referred to herein as an interactive media guidance application or, sometimes, a media guidance application or a guidance application.

#Interactive media guidance applications may take various forms depending on the content for which they provide guidance. One typical type of media guidance application is an interactive television program guide. Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to as electronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that, among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many types of content or media assets. Interactive media guidance applications may generate graphical user interface screens that enable a user to navigate among, locate and select content. As referred to herein, the terms “media asset” and “content” should be understood to mean an electronically consumable user asset, such as television programming, as well as pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (as in video-on-demand (VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g., streaming content, downloadable content, Webcasts, etc.), video clips, audio, content information, pictures, rotating images, documents, playlists, websites, articles, books, electronic books, blogs, advertisements, chat sessions, social media, applications, games, and/or any other media or multimedia and/or combination of the same. Guidance applications also allow users to navigate among and locate content. As referred to herein, the term “multimedia” should be understood to mean content that utilizes at least two different content forms described above, for example, text, audio, images, video, or interactivity content forms. Content may be recorded, played, displayed or accessed by user equipment devices, but can also be part of a live performance.

#The media guidance application and/or any instructions for performing any of the embodiments discussed herein may be encoded on computer readable media. Computer readable media includes any media capable of storing data. The computer readable media may be transitory, including, but not limited to, propagating electrical or electromagnetic signals, or may be non-transitory including, but not limited to, volatile and non-volatile computer memory or storage devices such as a hard disk, floppy disk, USB drive, DVD, CD, media cards, register memory, processor caches, Random Access Memory (“RAM”), etc.