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Twelve people and the gunman were killed in the shooting rampage. D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray said victims ranged in age from 46 to 73.
Officials had notified the families of seven of the deceased and were working on notifying the remainder. At least one of those killed was a D.C. resident, Mr. Gray said.
The victims are Michael Arnold, 59, Sylvia Frasier, 53, Kathy Gaarde, 62, John Roger Johnson, 73, Frank Kohler, 50, Kenneth Bernard Proctor, 46, and Vishnu Pandit, 61.
D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said at least one identified victim was a District resident.
Officials also clarified that of eight additional people who were injured during the incident, three were shot. Others suffered injuries that ranged from contusions from falling to stress reactions.
One of those shot was MPD Officer Scott Williams, who worked on the K-9 team.
Chief Lanier said none of the people injured or killed were on active military duty.


text: POPSUGAR Tech Pop Quiz Number of Registered Twitter Users How Many Registered Users Does Twitter Have Now? by Kristen Hawley 11/01/10 13 Shares Like us on Facebook Sign up for our daily newsletter > Follow us on Pinterest Back in April, Twitter confirmed its 105 million users. In a recent interview, Twitter co-founder Evan Williams gave up a more recent number, and growth is quite positive. It's now November . . . can you guess how many registered users Twitter has? How Many Registered Users Does Twitter Have Now? How many registered users does Twitter have? 125 million 135 million 155 million 175 million 185 million Progress Read More Registered UsersTwitterNews POPSUGAR, the #1 independent media and technology company for women. Where more than 75 million women go for original, inspirational content that feeds their passions and interests. Get Inspired With Our Living Newsletter Personalize DIY Food Love and Sex Tech Vegetarian Home Sign up with facebook or By signing up, I agree to the Terms and to receive emails from POPSUGAR.

subset: commoncrawl


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I use this plugin for our amateur rugby club website and I have to say that it is really helpful. Before, we had to change the website every week to show the next upcoming game. With this plugin you just type them in once, and all the rest works like a charm.
I also had some mail conversations with Mark (the developer) and he is very kind and cooperative. I think the last update (3.5.2) fixed a few things I didn't like too much before (like date formatting).
The only thing I could criticize is the default design of the widgets, but apart from that, I really love this plugin.
Keep up the good work Mark!


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Free Worship Songs of the week
Hymn of the month
New Song Discovery
Latest Devotional
It's All in the Way You Word It
I've read the story of Esther many times. But this time, something different stood out to me; the way it was worded. In the beginning of the story, there was a queen before Esther, named Queen Vashti. Queen Vashti didn't want to attend the king's party. She simply said, "NO." Because of her simple refusal, she was banned from the king's presence.
Latest Worship Tips & Reviews
Blessed Assurance: The New Hymns Of Fanny Crosby
YESTERDAY (October 9th) marks the release of a special Fanny Crosby project. Here's a glimpse of the project: The incomparable Fanny Crosby's gift to the Church shines anew in Blessed Assurance: The New Hymns Of Fanny Crosby releasing globally Oct. 9. The project features...
Latest Teaching
WeAreWorship USA Podcast #1: Paul Baloche on Christmas Worship
For the very first episode of the WeAreWorship USA Podcast, we have a conversation with Paul Baloche about worship leading, Christmas, and his new album, Christmas Worship Vol 2.
You may have missed...
Featured Song
Where Would I Be - Song Story
I first sang the chorus "Where would I be without your grace" at a prayer and worship night. It was one of those melodies I loved to sing in intimate worship settings, because it opened up the opportunity for reflection while in the worship singing context.


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AUSA: When it comes to drones, the Army is now thinking small. The next new drone the service will buy is a Rucksack Portable UAS, Col. Courtney Cote, project manager for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), told reporters at an Association of the United States Army update on Army UAS plans. Cote's office already has a… Keep reading →
Intel & Cyber
Backpack Drones, Smaller Weapons: Army Thinks Small On UAVsBy Richard Whittle
WASHINGTON: A Pentagon procurement process that takes a decade to deliver can't keep up with fast-advancing frontline of cyberwar. US Cyber Command needs more agile ways to get technology, top officials said today. For now, its nascent Cyber National Mission Force is actually building some key tools in-house. "For us at the cutting edge," said… Keep reading →
Senate Votes Overwhelmingly For NDAA; Two GOP Vote NoBy Colin Clark
WASHINGTON: The House couldn't do it, but the Senate passed a veto-proof vote today for the annual defense policy bill. The final Senate vote, 70-27, included two no votes from GOP Sens. Rand Paul and Ted Cruz, both of whom are trying to run for president. The House voted 270-156, with 37 Democrats joining Republicans… Keep reading →
Russia Builds 'Arc Of Steel': Adm. FergusonBy Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
WASHINGTON: "We are observing the manifestation of a more aggressive, more capable Russian navy," the US Navy's top commander in Europe said today. And if that fleet is Putin's seagoing hammer, missile bases ashore are his land-based anvil. Complementing Russian naval modernization, Adm. Mark Ferguson said, we have seen "the construction of an arc of… Keep reading →
President Obama Will Veto Defense Policy BillBy Colin Clark
WASHINGTON: One day after House and Senate conferees finally came to agreement on the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act, President Obama appeared ready to make good on half a decade of threats to veto the annual defense policy bill. Hours after that bad news hit, Congress cleared a Continuing Resolution this evening, allowing everyone to breath for a… Keep reading →
WASHINGTON: Hacks are hard to do damage assessments on. Just ask Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper about the Chinese theft of data from the Office of Personnel Management. "We don't actually know what was actually exfiltrated," Clapper told several hundred people at Georgetown University's Healy Hall today. Why don't we really know if 5.6 million fingerprints — or… Keep reading →
Summits Over Substance: Obama Yields To Chinese President XiBy Dean Cheng
As Washington gears up for the visit of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, right on the heels of the Pontiff, there is a growing urgency for the United States to make clear to Beijing that its behavior is leading to increased tension at both the bilateral and regional level. But, there appears little appetite for… Keep reading →
Bye Bye U-2: CIA Legend Allen Predicts End Of Manned ReconnaissanceBy Richard Whittle
WASHINGTON: "The world of manned reconnaissance is gone, and soon manned reconnaissance itself will be gone." So says Charles E. Allen, whose opinion on such matters carries more weight than most. Charlie Allen joined the CIA in 1958 and spent the last seven of his 40 years there as assistant director of central intelligence for collection.… Keep reading →


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La Canada Flintridge News
Local news for La Canada Flintridge, CA continually updated from thousands of sources on the web.
California high school students are so brain damaged by vaccines that ...
Tuesday Oct 6 | NewsTarget.com | Comment?
View 5,000 Amazing Halloween Pumpkins at Rise of the...
Monday Oct 5 | LA Weekly | Comment?
Showers Soak Southland Mountains, Foothills
Sunday Oct 4 | CBS Local | Comment?
Photos: La Canada Flintridge Country Club Hosts Wine Flight Night
Thursday Oct 1 | Patch.com | Comment?
City of La Canada Flintridge Invites Public to Lecture from Former State Assemblyman
Wednesday Sep 30 | Patch.com | Comment?
Memory of JPL's Claudia Alexander lives on -- atop a peak on Rosetta's comet
Tuesday Sep 29 | Los Angeles Times | Comment?
24 Celebrities Who Tragically Lost A Child
Time to go?
News 3,764
Should prostitution be less illegal-or more?
Legislation 169
Kaley Cuoco Spends Time with Friends' Children After Announcing Divorce: 'My Best Friends' Kids Rock'
Monday Sep 28 | People | Comment?
Of liquidity on Mars: Opinion
Monday Sep 28 | The Daily Breeze | Comment?
Rise of the Jack Oa Lanterns at Descanso Gardens, Santa Anita Park...
Monday Sep 28 | LA Daily News | Comment?
Kaley Cuoco Brushes Off Split To Enter Riding Competition
Monday Sep 28 | ContactMusic.com | Comment?
Photos: La Canada Flintridge Country Club Hosts Tiki Putt Putt
Friday Sep 25 | Patch.com | Comment?
City of La Canada Flintridge Invites Residents to Mulch Giveaway
Thursday Sep 24 | Patch.com | Comment?
Susan Koleda joins La Canada Flintridge Planning Commission
Wednesday Sep 23 | La Canada Valley Sun | Comment?
City Briefs: Congressman Schiff to get roasted; community outreach meeting set for Thursday
Wednesday Sep 23 | Glendale News-Press | Comment?
Friends of La Canada Flintridge Library to Host Community Book Sale
Tuesday Sep 22 | Patch.com | Comment?
2 Californians charged with $21 million movie-making scheme
Wednesday Sep 16 | Myrtle Beach Online | Comment?
Severe Weather Alert
Beach Hazards Statement for Los Angeles County was issued at October 10 at 4:51AM PDT
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Bella Saves Edward
Bella Saves Edward
Alice and Bella travel to stop Edward from revealing himself to the humans. Bella stops Edward and he reveals that he only left because he thought that was the best thing for Bella. Jane, a member of the Volturi, approaches Edward, Alice and Bella. Jane makes the group follow her to the Volturi. After a long delibration, the Volturi allow Edward, Alice and Bella to leave alive because Aro (the head of the Volturi) is intrigued that none of the vampire's powers have an affect on Bella. Alice also reveals to Aro that Bella will one day be a vampire.
Edward: "I just couldn't live in a world where you don't exist."
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Is Technology Making Us Bible Illiterate?We can't deny there's a major Biblical literacy problem. Is technology to blame?...
What is the Great American Smokeout?An estimated 42.1 million American adults smoke cigarettes with over 400,000...
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text: I was enamored by the history within the walls of this quaint hotel. Our room on the ground floor felt like a room in an ancient palace--- and maybe it was ! The tall ceiling and furnishings were majestic. Hotel Monna LIsa is located near fine restaurants and other famous sites of Firenze. The food in the restaurant was perfect,... More


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Steve Jobs
The fact that he doesn't try to redeem these flawed, fascinating figures—or even try to make you like them in the slightest way—feels like an…
The fact that he doesn't try to redeem these flawed, fascinating figures—or even try to make you like them in the slightest way—feels like an…
As a piece of social satire, Knock Knock winds up being not just toothless but anticlimactic.
"The Ballad of Narayama" is a Japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice, telling a story of startling cruelty. What a space it opens…
Patrice Leconte's "Monsieur Hire" is a tragedy about loneliness and erotomania, told about two solitary people who have nothing else in common. It involves a…
A NYFF report on "Carol," "The Assassin" and "Right Now, Wrong Then."
A video interview with Guy Maddin and Evan Johnson.
A report about Chaz Ebert's upcoming appearance on OWN's "Where Are They Now?" program.
An article about "The BlackWhite Love Play."
A FFC review of "The Look of Silence."
A review of "A Girl at My Door".
Our contributors share their fondest memories of the bygone era of video stores.
R.I.P. Chantal Akerman; Colin Healey on "Homemakers"; Rick Moranis isn't retired; Taking a stand against sexism in Hollywood; Eli Roth on "Knock Knock."
A fog of gloom lowers over "The Whole Ten Yards," as actors who know they're in a turkey try their best to prevail. We sense a certain desperation as dialogue mechanically grinds through unplayable scenes, and the characters arrive at moments that the movie thinks are funny but they suspect are not. This is one of those movies you look at quizzically: What did they think they were doing?
The movie is an unnecessary sequel to "The Whole Nine Yards" (2000), a movie in which many of the same actors sent completely different messages from the screen. "A subtle but unmistakable aura of jolliness sneaks from the screen," I wrote in my review of the earlier movie. "We suspect that the actors are barely suppressing giggles. This is the kind of standard material everyone could do in lockstep, but you sense inner smiles, and you suspect the actors are enjoying themselves."
The problem, I suspect, is that "The Whole Nine Yards" did everything that needed to be done with the characters, and did it well. Now the characters are back again, blinking in the footlights, embarrassed by their curtain call. The movie has the hollow, aimless aura of a beach resort in winter: The geography is the same, but the weather has turned ugly.
You will recall that the earlier film starred Bruce Willis as Jimmy "The Tulip" Tudeski, a professional hit man who has moved in next door to a Montreal dentist named Oz (Matthew Perry). The dentist's receptionist was Jill (Amanda Peet), a woman whose greatest ambition in life was to become a hit woman. Jimmy was in hiding from a Chicago gangster named Janni Gogolak (Kevin Pollak), who wanted him whacked.
In "The Whole Ten Yards," Jimmy the Tulip and Jill are married, and hiding out in Mexico, where Jill finds employment as a hit woman while Jimmy masquerades as a house-husband. That puts Willis in an apron and a head cloth during the early scenes, as if such a disguise would do anything other than call attention to him.
Oz, meanwhile, has moved to Los Angeles and is now married to Cynthia (Natasha Henstridge), who used to be married to the Tulip. (His first wife, played in the earlier movie by Rosanna Arquette with a hilarious French-Canadian accent, might have been useful here.)
Janni Gogolak was made dead by Oz and the Tulip in the first picture, but now his father, the crime boss Lazlo Gogolak, has been released from prison, and uses all of his power to find revenge against the two men; that fuels most of the plot, such as it is. Lazlo Gogolak is played by Kevin Pollak (again) in one of the most singularly bad performances I have ever seen in a movie. It doesn't fail by omission, it fails by calling attention to its awfulness. His accent, his voice, his clothes, his clownish makeup, all conspire to create a character who brings the movie to a halt every time he appears on the screen. We stare in amazement, and I repeat: What did they think they were doing?
The movie's plot is without sense or purpose. It generates some action scenes which are supposed to be comic, but are not, for the inescapable reason that we have not the slightest interest in the characters and therefore even less interest in their actions. The movie is instructive in the way it demonstrates how a film can succeed or fail not only because of the mechanics of its screenplay, but because of the spirit of its making.
"The Whole Nine Yards" was not a particularly inspired project, but it was made with spirit and good cheer, and you felt the actors almost visibly expanding on the screen; Amanda Peet in particular seemed possessed. Here we see the actors all but contracting, as if to make themselves smaller targets for the camera. That there will never be a movie named "The Whole Eleven Yards" looks like a safe bet.
This message came to me from a reader named Peter Svensland. He and a fr...
A comparison of Frank Costello in The Departed and Whitey Bulger in Black Mass reveals weaknesses in the latter.
A NYFF report on new films from Chantal Akerman and Michel Gondry.
Our monthly series digs into the career of Wes Craven and comes out with his 3D 2010 film, "My Soul to Take".


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Narrow your search
This is a car that sounds and looks good enough to almost make you forget its other shortcomings. Those looking to buy will do so with their hearts, not their minds.
At a starting price of $38,850 the 228i Convertible is hardly cheap, but it is a beauty.
At the New York auto show, BMW presented the all-new M4 with a retractable hard top.
With wide haunches and a deep, throaty exhaust note, the Bentley Continental GT V8 S Convertible comes off as a muscle car for the wealthy.
The Windows 8.1-powered laptop comes with a snap-on microscope lens as well as a temperature probe for use in science experiments.
Pricing not available: education market only.
Microsoft upped its cool factor today with introductions of some really great-sounding products, including a first for the company, the Surface Book convertible laptop.
The 2013 Mercedes-Benz SL550 Roadster is an excellent luxury convertible that doesn't rely heavily on tech gimmickry; however, its new Comand Online system falls short of the bar set by Audi and BMW.
The new Bentley Continental GT Speed Convertible pulls out all the stops when it comes to performance and luxury, but falls short of the cabin tech cutting edge.
RIM's new BlackBerry Mini Keyboard quickly converts a PlayBook tablet into a virtual laptop while adding protection and a lot of style.
With a maneuverable vacuum head and a lightweight frame, Electrolux makes it easy to take the 2-in-1 Ergorapido stick vac for a spin.


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Posts Tagged With: professional genealogist Chicago
Military Monday – Military Research From the Civil War to World War II
Cindy Freed and I, writers for the In-Depth Genealogist, were interviewed on IDG's new YouTube channel. Cindy talked about Civil War Research and her book Ancestors in a Divided Nation. I talked about World War II research and my two new books, Stories from the World War II Battlefield, which will soon be released on researching […]
Writing Wednesday – Book Review "Flying Warbirds"
I am a member of the World War II History Network and from time to time there are book giveaways. A few weeks ago I received Flying Warbirds An Illustrated Profile of The Flying Heritage Collection's Rare WWII-Era Aircraft by Cory Graff. While I do a lot of research on World War II, this book […]
Writing Wednesday – MeetUp.com Writing Groups
Have you ever looked at the website MeetUp.com? Several of my friends told me last year I should check it out, try new things, get out and meet new people. So I did. I joined a local writer's group that meets monthly and writes using writing prompts. The group leader provides a prompt, a time […]
Visit my website & WWII Toolbox
Coming in October, the World War II Research and Writing Center! The World War II Research and Writing Center brings together a collection of resources to help people research and write the stories of U.S. soldiers during World War II. We accomplish this through toolboxes, forms and checklists, articles, newsletters, webinars, courses, and books. Sign-up for my WWII newsletter here.
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Hey everyone!
Time to update you all again of the coolest shit I've found on the net as of late.
Well no point fucking around, lets get straight into it!
SEO – http://www.seattleseoconsultant.com/ Yes another SEO Consultant (I know how annoying). However I've actually worked with these guys on a few personal projects as well. Great company that delivers awesome results. Check em out!
ShowBox – This is an awesome little app let me tell you. Its probably the best way I've found to stream TV shows to my android device. Cannot recommend it enough! Awesome app with an incredibly easy UI to use. Cannot recommend enough!
Ultragrind – Classic local business. These guys specialze in putting down Ultragrind onto your floors and driveways. Great company with awesome prices, check em out!
http://www.eifpersonaltrainingschool.co.uk/ – Many of you may personally know that recently I left uni (I know crazy right). I quickly got terrible cabin fever from working from home all the time. As soon as I talked to Eif though, my attitude changed completley. She kicked my ass into action and immediately got my act into gear and started working hard!Read More


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Welcome to Halloween at Hinnant Vineyards! Come celebrate Halloween at our 4th Annual Spirits & Spirits Costume Ball on October 24th at 7 pm. Purchase an advanced reservation now for only $12.
Find out about what's happening at the vineyard!
We invite you to be our guest and enjoy a tasting of our wine.
Take a tour of our family vineyard at no charge
Hinnant Family Vineyards welcomes you to join our Wine Club as a Gold Member!
Shop Red, White, Blush, Fruit, and Holiday wines & Non-Alcoholic Juices
Host your next private event here or visit one of our public events!
Hinnant Family Vineyards & Winery: Our Story.
For over 30 years, we have dedicated countless hours and extreme effort into cultivating the best quality muscadine grapes in the state.
Located in Pine Level, North Carolina, Hinnant Family Vineyards is the largest muscadine vineyard in North Carolina, sprawling over 100 acres.
From our dry white and reds to our traditional sweet scuppernong, we catch a spectrum of flavors in our international award-winning wines.
So it is our family to yours that we dedicate each bottle we process here at Hinnant Family Vineyards with the hopes that our extended family,
our clients and customers, will enjoy and treasure the memories each bottle of wine is sure to bring.
Order North Carolina's
best wine to enjoy at home!
Read more
Taste our wines & tour
our family vineyard!
Invite your guests here
for your next special event!


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East Rutherford NJ Real Estate & Homes For Sale
73 Properties Found
The median home value in East Rutherford, NJ is $315,700.
This is
lower than
the county median home value of $396,800.
The national median home value is $170,100.
The average price of homes sold in East Rutherford, NJ is $315,700.
Approximately 38.66% of East Rutherford homes are owned,
compared to 56.41% rented, while
4.93% are vacant.
East Rutherford real estate listings include condos, townhomes, and single family homes for sale.
Commercial properties are also available.
If you see a property you're interested in, contact a East Rutherford real estate agent to arrange a tour today!
11 - 20 of 73 Properties Displayed
Courtesy: CENTURY 21 EUDAN REALTY-HASBROUCK HEIGHTS
View additional info
Updated oversized apartment centrally located in the heart of East Rutherford. Large Eat-In Kitchen with newer cabinets, counter top and ceramic tile floor. Oversized living room and bedroom with hardwood floors through out. Ceramic tile bath. Heat and water included in rent. Make an appointment to see this apartment.....it will not last! Must have good credit and owner will not consider pets.
Courtesy: RE/MAX WHITE HOUSE
View additional info
Beautiful updated 2nd floor apt with living rm, new kitchen with SS appliances, dining area with balcony overlooking NY, 2 bedrooms, new bath. Hardwood floor throughout,central air,baseboard heat.Convenietly located, close to public transportation. No pets.
Courtesy: KELLER WILLIAMS VILLAGE SQUARE REALTY
View additional info
One block from the Rutherford train station. Move right into a fully furnished, updated office. Over 1500 square feet consisting of a large conference room, kitchenette, 2 private bathrooms, 3 large private offices, plus an extra office space. Two of the offices include desk and chairs and the conference room comes with a 12 seated table plus a TV screen/projector. Onsite parking plus additional street parking with no restrictions. Located on the boarder of East Rutherford and Rutherford. Centrally located; one block from Route 17. Gross lease. No additional building expenses. All utilities included.
Courtesy: RE/MAX NEIGHBORHOOD PROPERTIES
View additional info
Courtesy: ARLENE SIGRETTO REALTY
View additional info
Large one bedroom apartment, walking distance to Rutherford train and shops. Newer kitchen countertops.Washer /dryer hook-ups in basement.
Courtesy: CENTURY 21 EUDAN REALTY-RUTHERFORD
View additional info
Nice one family expanded cape in a quiet neighborhood. Home has lots of natural light from picture window in living room with electric fireplace offering a warm setting. Kitchen has newer cabinetry and newer stove. Dining room has sliders to deck in rear and one bedroom on the first floor. Second floor has two large bedrooms and plenty of closet space and 1/2 bath. Basement has summer kitchen washer dryer and work area. Private spacious backyard and 2 car tandem garage and long driveway. All offer must be accompanied by pre-approval.
Courtesy: ERA/JUSTIN REALTY CO.
View additional info
Commuters delight! Conveniently located near transportation to NYC. Well maintained and in move in condition. This 3 bedroom, 2 full bath home has three levels of living space plus a full basement with great potential for finishing. Recent upgrades to the home include updated electric 200 AMP service, newer furnace with 4 zone heat, updated plumbing and new driveway with parking for up to 3 cars. Kitchen and bathrooms also updated. A definite must see! Low taxes!
Courtesy: RE/MAX TRADING PLACES LLC - HASBROUCK HEIGHTS
View additional info
Six room Professional office good for Docters,Real Estate, Lawyers etc
Courtesy: YOUNG STAR REALTY, LLC
View additional info
Upgraded duplex style condo with 2 bedroom and 2 full bathroom. Spacious living room with wood burning Fireplace, Dining Room, RENOVATED Kitchen with Granite Counter tops, Custom stone backsplash, Custom Maple Cabinets and S/S Appliances, Spacious closets. Hardwood Floors, Terrace off living room. Complex exterior and roof redone in 2009. Remodeled kitchen & Baths in 2010. Tandem 2 car garage with additional storage space. New Hot Water Heater in 2012. AMPLE guest parking spaces. Easy access NYC transportation, Parks, houses of worship. INVESTOR ONLY! Monthly rental income is $2,000.
Courtesy: COCCIA REALTY BETTER HOMES & GARDENS-RUTHERFORD
View additional info
Great 2 story, end unit condo with large Living Room/Dining area, modern Kitchen and 1/2 Bath on first floor. King-sized Bedroom with skylight and doors to an open balcony, full Bath and laundry on the second floor. Beautiful hardwood floors and central air conditioning in unit. Monthly maintenance fee of $145.00 includes assigned parking space and common area maintenance. Convenient location to NYC train and bus and local shopping. Pets under 30 lb. considered. One Year Home Warranty provided by seller!
11 - 20 of 73 Properties Displayed
East Rutherford NJ Real Estate Listings Provided By:
Real Living Gold Star Realty
How can we help you?
Have a question or need assistance? Please fill out the information below and we'll be glad to assist you.
East Rutherford & Nearby CitiesEast Rutherford Real Estate Carlstadt Homes For Sale Rutherford Homes For Sale Wood Ridge Homes For Sale Wood-Ridge Homes For Sale Wallington Homes For Sale Passaic Homes For Sale Lyndhurst Homes For Sale Hasbrouck Heights Homes For Sale Moonachie Homes For Sale Lodi Homes For Sale
East Rutherford ZIPs07073 Homes For Sale


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Bio: After winning some of the most important music festivals in Italy, such as "Mia Martini Award" and "Musicultura Award", the major prize for the Italian songwriters, in 2004 Alessia D'Andrea met with Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull with whom she recorded "Locomotive Breath".
From that moment Alessi...See Full Bio


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|Publication number
|Publication type
|Application number
|Publication date
|Nov 2, 1999
|Filing date
|Jun 6, 1997
|Priority date
|Jun 6, 1997
|Fee status
|Also published as
|Publication number
|Stephen G. Perlman, William H. Yundt, Stuart Schneck
|Original Assignee
|Webtv Networks, Inc.
|Export Citation
|BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan
|Patent Citations (20), Non-Patent Citations (4), Referenced by (164), Classifications (12), Legal Events (7)
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet
The present invention relates to the field of networked computer systems. Specifically, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for transmitting high bandwidth network content on a low bandwidth communications channel during off peak hours.
With the advent of consumer-oriented services on global networks such as the Internet, there has been an explosion of interest in delivering these services to users in their homes. Private on-line services such as America On-line (AOL™), Internet Service Providers (ISPs) such as Netcom™, and television-based Internet services such as the WebTV™ Network from WebTV Networks, Inc., are all seeking to provide on-line services to typical consumers in their homes.
Unfortunately, the world's residential communication infrastructure was not designed to accommodate the high-bandwidth, two-way requirements of on-line services. Consequently, usage in the home is, for the most part, limited to "plain old telephone service" or "POTS" modems and Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) services. Although modems are becoming increasingly more efficient in utilizing the bandwidth of a telephone voice channel, they are ultimately limited to the 64 Kbps digitization of voice channels in the switched telephone network. ISDN, in some countries, can provide approximately 128 Kbps in bandwidth. That is, however, the upper limit in bandwidth for two-way communications using today's available infrastructure to homes.
Although there are other experimental and proposed technologies to provide two-way high-bandwidth communications to the home beyond 128 Kbps, none of these technologies have been deployed to any significant degree on a nationwide or worldwide basis. For example, Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Loop (ADSL) uses the telephone twisted pair going to the home from the telephone central office to provide over 1 Mbps of downstream (to the home) bandwidth and lower upstream bandwidth. Cable modems, utilizing the Cable TV (CATV) infrastructure can provide over 10 Mbits of downstream bandwidth and over 1 Mbps of upstream bandwidth. Also, hybrid approaches have been proposed in which a POTS telephone modem provides a low-bandwidth upstream channel while a one-way cable modem, a Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) feed, or even a terrestrial broadcast provides the downstream channel at over 10 Mbits/sec,
Each of these high-bandwidth technologies has significant infrastructure upgrade implications and/or significant scalability limitations. For example, ADSL requires the installation of ADSL modems in every telephone central office. Clearly, this amounts to a monumental undertaking. Cable, DBS, and terrestrial communications systems are broadcast architectures with limited overall bandwidth which is easily swamped when it is used for individual messages to potentially thousands, or even millions, of subscribers. Although a given cable plant can theoretically be segmented into independent subtrees to handle more individual messages, there are still monumental infrastructure upgrade implications.
Thus, given the bandwidth limitations of current communications infrastructure to the home, and given the high cost, monumental upgrade implications, and limitations of proposed new infrastructure, better methods are needed to bring high-bandwidth content services into the home using existing infrastructure.
The present invention describes a method for transmitting high bandwidth network content on a low bandwidth communications channel during off peak hours. According to one embodiment of the present invention, criteria is determined for downloading data from the communications channel and the data is downloaded from the communications channel during off-peak hours based on the determined criteria.
According to another embodiment, a method for coordinated multicasts on a network is described. Download requests are received on a server from a plurality of clients on the network and stored on the server for the coordinated multicast. The coordinated multicast is generated at a predetermined time and then broadcast from the server to the plurality of clients at the predetermined time.
Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the accompanying drawings and from the detailed description.
The present invention is illustrated by way of example and not by way of limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which like reference numerals refer to similar elements and in which:
FIG. 1A is a typical computer system in which the present invention operates.
FIG. 1B is an alternate computer system (a WebTV system) in which the present invention operates.
FIGS. 2A and 2B illustrate the currently available devices and services on the Internet today
FIGS. 3A-3D illustrate multicast or broadcast data streams according to various embodiments of the present invention
FIG. 4 illustrates prior art utilization of idle time and off-peak time on a network
FIG. 5 illustrates improved utilization of idle time and off-peak time on a network according to one embodiment of the present invention
The present invention is a method and apparatus for transmitting high bandwidth network content on a two-way low bandwidth communications channel during off peak hours. One embodiment of the present invention utilizes typical on-line services and Internet usage patterns as well usage patterns of existing communications channels to provide the user of a low bandwidth communications channel with an experience similar to the experience enjoyed by users utilizing a high-bandwidth communication channel. In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. It will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that these specific details need not be used to practice the present invention. In other instances, well-known structures, interfaces, and processes have not been shown in detail in order not to unnecessarily obscure the present invention.
FIG. 1A illustrates a typical computer system 100 in which the present invention operates. One embodiment of the present invention is implemented on a personal computer architecture. It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that other alternative computer system architectures may also be employed.
In general, such computer systems as illustrated by FIG. 1A comprise a bus 101 for communicating information, a processor 102 coupled with the bus 101 for processing information, main memory 103 coupled with the bus 101 for storing information and instructions for the processor 102, a read-only memory 104 coupled with the bus 101 for storing static information and instructions for the processor 102, a display device 105 coupled with the bus 101 for displaying information for a computer user, an input device 106 coupled with the bus 101 for communicating information and command selections to the processor 102, and a mass storage device 107, such as a magnetic disk and associated disk drive, coupled with the bus 101 for storing information and instructions. A data storage medium 108 containing digital information is configured to operate with mass storage device 107 to allow processor 102 access to the digital information on data storage medium 108 via bus 101.
Processor 102 may be any of a wide variety of general purpose processors or microprocessors such as the Pentium� microprocessor manufactured by Intel� Corporation. It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art, however, that other varieties of processors may also be used in a particular computer system. Display device 105 may be a liquid crystal device, cathode ray tube (CRT), or other suitable display device. Mass storage device 107 may be a conventional hard disk drive, floppy disk drive, CD-ROM drive, or other magnetic or optical data storage device for reading and writing information stored on a hard disk, a floppy disk, a CD-ROM a magnetic tape, or other magnetic or optical data storage medium. Data storage medium 108 may be a hard disk, a floppy disk, a CD-ROM, a magnetic tape, or other magnetic or optical data storage medium.
In general, processor 102 retrieves processing instructions and data from a data storage medium 108 using mass storage device 107 and downloads this information into random access memory 103 for execution. Processor 102, then executes an instruction stream from random access memory 103 or read-only memory 104. Command selections and information input at input device 106 are used to direct the flow of instructions executed by processor 102. Equivalent input device 106 may also be a pointing device such as a conventional mouse or trackball device. The results of this processing execution are then displayed on display device 105.
Computer system 100 includes a network device 110 for connecting computer system 100 to a network. Network device 110 for connecting computer system 100 to the network includes Ethernet devices, phone jacks and satellite links. It will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that other network devices may also be utilized.
Another embodiment of the present invention is implemented on a system known as WebTV, by WebTV Networks, Inc., Palo Alto. The WebTV system uses a standard television set as a display device for browsing the Web and connects to a conventional network, such as the Internet, using standard telephone, Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), or similar communication lines. A user of a WebTV client system can utilize WebTV network services provided by one or more remote WebTV servers. The WebTV network services can be used in conjunction with software running in a WebTV client system to browse the Web, send electronic mail, and to make use of the Internet in various other ways. The WebTV network uses a HyperText Transport Protocol (HTTP) based set of protocols implemented within the Web and supported by one or more Web servers.
FIG. 1B illustrates a basic configuration of the WebTV network according to one embodiment. A number of WebTV clients 180 are coupled to a modem pool 170 via direct-dial, bi-directional data connections 175, which may be telephone (POTS, i.e., "plain old telephone service"), ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network), or any other similar type of connection. Modem pool 170 is coupled typically through a router, such as that conventionally known in the art, to a number of remote servers 150 via a conventional network infrastructure 165, such as the Internet.
The WebTV system also includes a WebTV server 160, which specifically supports the WebTV clients 180. WebTV server 160 acts as a proxy in providing the WebTV client 180 with access to the Web and other WebTV services. More specifically, WebTV server 160 functions as a "caching proxy." A proxy cache on WebTV server 160 is used for temporary storage of Web documents, images, and other information which is used by frequently either the WebTV client 180 or the WebTV server 160.
WebTV clients 180 each have a connection to the WebTV server 160 either directly, via a WebTV modem pool 175, similar to modem pool 170, or through the conventional modem pool 170 and the Internet 165. Note that the modem pool 170 is a conventional modem pool, such as those found today throughout the world providing access to the Internet and private networks. Further details of the WebTV system, including the WebTV client can be found in co-pending U.S. Patent application entitled, "Web Browser Allowing Navigation Between Hypertext Objects Using Remote Control," having application no. 08/660,088, and filed on Jun. 3, 1996.
One embodiment of the present invention is implemented as a software module, which may be executed on a computer system such as computer system 100 or WebTV server 160 in a conventional manner. Using well known techniques, the application software of the preferred embodiment is stored on data storage medium 108 and subsequently loaded into and executed within computer system 100 or WebTV server 160. Once initiated, the software of this embodiment operates in the manner described below.
FIG. 2A illustrates the variety of communications channels currently available to the typical home on-line service subscriber in an industrialized country such as the United States, Japan, or the United Kingdom. The arrows indicate the direction(s) of data flow over a given channel.
A user browsing the Internet today can select specific content such as web pages, video clips, audio clips or advertisements. This selected content is typically stored on servers on the Internet, identified in FIG. 2A as content server 210. Since these content servers are usually maintained at commercial locations, very high bandwidth communications channels such a T1 or T3 lines are available to connect them to either a TCP/IP network, such as the Internet or a Virtual Private Network (VPN), or other packet-switched networks, such as X.25. Content servers may also be connected to conventional broadcast channels 200 including a CATV channel, a terrestrial channel, or a DBS channel. Because of the nature of these conventional broadcast channels 200, however, they are typically limited to transmitting data in a single downstream direction, namely from the content server to the client.
Such content servers can be located at one site or at many sites throughout the world. In fact, it is quite possible to replicate such content servers in several locations so as to minimize the communications channel resources used by bringing a content server closer to each subscriber and to provide redundancy in the event of a server or communications failure.
FIG. 2B illustrates a common configuration today for personal computer (PC) and network-enabled set-top boxes and video game consoles. Client network interface device (client device) 302 may include a device such as a WebTV™ set-top box, a video game system or a PC, that incorporates features described in computer system 100 above. Connected to client device 202 is a network interface device 224, such as a POTS modem, an ISDN adapter, a cable modem or an ADSL modem. Also connected to client device 202 is caching store 220. Caching store 220 may include a hard disk, a digital video disk (DVD), flash Read-Only Memory (ROM), or Random Access Memory (RAM). Other client devices, network interface devices and caching stores may also be utilized.
Network interface device 224 connects to a two-way wide-area network (WAN) 226. According to one embodiment of the present invention, two-way WAN 226 is a switched telephone network (POTS or ISDN). ADSL, two-way cable plant, or other two-way network technology may also be utilized. Given the current infrastructure that is widely available for homes throughout the world, a POP is necessary to connect the home to the packet-switched WAN. Thus, as illustrated in FIG. 2B, POP 206 connects the two-way WAN to a packet-switched WAN 230 such as a TCP/IP network (e.g. the Internet or a VPN) or an X.25 network. In the event that a packet-switched WAN 230 can be delivered directly to the home in the future, POP 206 will no longer be necessary. Finally, within reach of the packet-switched wide area network is at least one content server 210 containing content potentially of interest to the user of client device 202.
Typically, the user of client device 202 decides that he or she is interested in certain content available on one or more content servers 210. The user connects his or her client device 202 to a WAN such as the Internet or a private on-line service such as AOL™. This is generally accomplished by client software executing on client device 202 dialing the phone number of POP 206, going through an authentication procedure to establish the validity of the user's on-line account, and then providing the user with an on-line navigation means. The on-line navigation means may be through a general-purpose Hyper-Text Markup Language (HTML) browser, such Netscape Navigator™ or Microsoft™ Internet Explorer, or through a proprietary on-line browser such as the AOL client software.
If the user is seeking a particular content item, there are various tools such a search engines and catalogs that the user can use to search for the content. Once that item is found, the user typically clicks the mouse on a hyperlink to that item. The hyperlink in turn directs the client software to initiate a download into their client device 202. Depending on the data size of the content selected, the communications bandwidth, the network traffic, and the load on content server 210 holding the content, the download time may vary. The download may complete almost instantly or take minutes or hours. Upon completion of the download, the user may experience a visual result such as a picture or a video clip, or an auditory result such as music. Alternatively, the download may simply be a file that is stored in memory or on a disk for later use.
Although a download theoretically may complete very quickly, the typical experience of the home Internet or on-line service user is that downloads are very slow, even for relatively small data items. There are a number of factors that can make the download very slow, but even if all of the stages of the download are working at optimum efficiency, the home user is typically still limited to the bandwidth limitations of the switched telephone network.
ISPs such as AT&T WorldNet™ and WebTV Networks, Inc. offer flat-rate Internet access. While such flat rates are offered on the expectation of a certain average utilization of POP and network resources by the overall subscriber base, the ISP's primary concern is utilization during peak usage hours (Monday-Friday, 9 am-5 pm for business usage, evenings and weekend daytime for home usage). This is due to the fact that an ISP has a certain number of modems available in its POPs and a certain amount of bandwidth between its POPs and its servers to the Internet. The ISP must ensure that it has a sufficient number of modems and adequate bandwidth for peak usage. Otherwise, users will get busy signals or poor performance when they dial in for service during peak times. Thus, for an ISP to provide good service to its customer base, it must provide enough POP modems and enough bandwidth for peak usage.
Notably, an ISP's modem and bandwidth resources (collectively "ISP infrastructure") are largely idle during off-peak hours. Which hours of the day qualify as "off-peak hours" vary depending on a given ISP's customer base. In both the case of business and home customer base, however, traffic is typically light during late night and early mornings, 7 days a week in each time zone. During these hours, an ISP is amortizing equipment and paying for communications bandwidth on leased lines without utilizing the equipment. Thus, theoretically, if a large percentage of an ISP's user base were to connect to the ISP during these hours, it would have little or no impact on the ISP's costs of providing Internet access, so long as the number of users was less than its peak number of users, even though it would drastically increase the average number of on-line hours per month per user.
Following this supposition further, the telephone costs to the user for connecting during these off-peak hours would be zero or quite low, assuming the dialed POP was in a given user's local calling area. As described above, in the United States, residential local calls are generally charged at a flat-rate per month, regardless of duration. In other countries, local calls during off-peak hours are often cheaper than during peak hours. For example, in Japan, while local calls during peak hours are charged by the minute, a flat-rate service plan is available between the hours of 11 PM and 7 AM. Like the ISPs, phone companies must provide equipment and bandwidth to accommodate peak loads. During off-peak hours, this equipment and bandwidth sits idle, so the company may desire to incent users to utilize the equipment during these hours.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, the methods of on-line communications using the configuration shown in FIG. 1B are improved significantly. The improvements take advantage of the fact that, as described above, typically in the home, a client device is utilized only during certain hours of the day. The presently claimed invention leverages the usage patterns to provide many of the characteristics of high-bandwidth two-way communications by heavily utilizing infrastructure during off-peak times.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the client software allows the user to specify content that the user desires to access. For example, if the user is interested in news, the user might identify CNN™ Interactive, a web site that contains news items, as a web site of interest. During off-peak hours (when the user is probably asleep) the client software on client device 202 will direct client device 202 and network interface device 124 to automatically dial into to a local POP 132, provide appropriate authentication, and then download all of the content the user has specified to be of interest. In the case of the CNN Interactive web site, the client software may explore all of the links originating from the root home page (i.e. http://www.cnn.com/) to some level of depth (e.g. to all pages within the cnn.com domain). As each web page comes in, its content will be stored in caching store 220.
Some of the links may very well contain large quantities of data, such as compressed video, which using currently known techniques, is only convenient to download through a high bandwidth connection. Alternatively, according to this embodiment of the present invention, the client software will have several off-peak hours to complete the downloads and will thus be able to download these large data items over a standard lowbandwidth communications mechanism. For example, at 33.6 Kbps, 118 MBytes of data can be downloaded in 8 hours. 1 minute of MPEG 1 video is about 10 MBytes of data. Currently, a user with a 33.6 Kbps modem would wait almost an hour to download 1 minute of video. According to this embodiment, however, the user may specify this type of content to be downloaded overnight. The next day, the video may be viewed in real-time from caching store 220.
The mechanism described above has significant advantages over currently available techniques. According to other embodiments of the present invention described below, further refinements provide for a better experience to the user and better resource utilization for the ISP.
A. Blind Downloads
One potential problem with the off-peak download mechanism just described is that if the client software blindly downloads content specified by the user, it may very well be downloading some of the same content redundantly every night. For example, the user may be interested in the CNN Interactive web site, but not all of the content on the CNN Interactive web site changes every night. Some of the graphical elements such as banners or user interface elements may remain unchanged for weeks or months at a time. Additionally, there are references to previous days' stories that may have been downloaded over the previous few days.
Thus, according to an embodiment of the present invention, data is selectively download into the Caching Store. There are numerous well-known techniques for determining whether on-line data has been previously cached, as well as certain proprietary techniques described in the co-pending application entitled "Method and Apparatus For Providing Proxying and Transcoding Of Documents In A Distributed Network," having Ser. No. 08/656,924, filed Jun. 3, 1996. If only new data is downloaded each night, then over several successive nights, a working set of current data may be captured which is much larger than the 118 MBytes that can be downloaded in a single 8 hour session at 33.6 Kbps.
B. Tracking Downloads
Another problem with the off-peak download mechanism and improvements just described is that it requires a proactive effort on the part of the user to specify which content the user is interested in. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the client software tracks the on-line usage of the user and logs a list of the sites the user visits. During the off-peak download, the client software can download updates to those sites, on the assumption that the user may be interested in going back to those sites at a later date.
C. Selecting Sites for Download
According to yet another embodiment of the present invention, the client software may consult with a database stored on a content server which categorizes sites by subject area, find sites that fall into the same general category as sites visited by the user, and download those sites during the off-peak downloads on the assumption that the user may be interested in similar category sites. For example, if the user is interested in NFL™ football and frequently visits www.nfl.com, the user may also be interested in the general sports information available at the ESPN™ website (www.espn.com). This embodiment may also include explicit selections provided by the user.
D. Organizing Download Material
According to another embodiment of the present invention, the ISP provides a service that organizes material chosen by an editorial staff (human or electronic) to download to the user based on any of the following criteria: (a) interests explicitly specified by the user (b) tracking which sites the user visits and extrapolating the user's interests (c) judgments made by the editorial staff of sites considered to be novelties or of general interest (d) payments made by third parties publishers of "high-end" web sites for data from their sites to be downloaded and cached permanently (e) payments made by third parties for advertisements to be downloaded and inserted during the user's browsing experience. It will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that other download criteria may also be employed.
This embodiment includes client and server side software. The client software connects to the ISP server software prior to starting its off-peak content download. The client software uploads relevant information to the server, such as explicitly specified interests of the user and user tracking information. The server software downloads to the client software a list of addresses of content to be downloaded during the off-peak download, based on the criteria described above. The caching store 220 can thus be customized to store content explicitly or implicitly in the user's interest.
E. Downloading Advertising
The caching store 220 can also store promotional content such as advertisements or particular web sites which third parties are willing to pay the ISP for the right to download and make available to the user. Presumably, such payments will reduce the ISPs operating costs and the savings can be passed along to the user in the form of reduced on-line costs. In this sense, such promotional content would serve a similar purpose to advertising on television: it would make content available to the user for a reduced cost, or for free.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, downloaded advertising is presented to the user in many forms. For example, the advertising can be placed as a "banner" on the screen amidst other content, or it could interrupt the user's browsing and be displayed periodically, just as TV ads interrupt the user's TV watching. The advertising can also be displayed while the user is visiting "free" sites, but suppressed while the user is visiting "premium" sites, namely sites that the user pays a monthly fee to view. Additionally, such advertising can be suppressed if the user pays a higher fee to the ISP.
Thus, according to this embodiment, advertising can be targeted more specifically to the user's interests using criteria similar to that used for selecting content to be downloaded to the user. Thus, unlike broadcast television where users must endure advertising directed to a fairly general audience, an embodiment of the present invention allows for improved, less intrusive, better targeted or non-existent (if the user is willing to pay a higher subscription fee) advertising.
Current Internet advertising generally connects the advertisement with a particular web page, usually in the form of a banner. If web pages containing such banners are cached in a caching store 220, several problems may arise. For example, each time the user returns to the cached web page, the same banner will be displayed. This is a disadvantage over current methods of displaying banners where banner ads change each time a web page is displayed. Additionally, if a web page is cached and the user never goes to it, any banner advertisement stored together with the web page is wasting cache space and download time.
Thus, according to one embodiment of the present invention, advertisements are stored separately from web pages and are inserted periodically during the user's browsing (regardless of what web page the user goes to). This embodiment thus allows the advertisements to change throughout the browsing experience, while optimizing the cache space and download time. This embodiment also allows the advertisements to be better targeted to the user's interests because the ads are targeted based on all of the data known about the user, not simply the fact the user is viewing a given web page. Finally, this embodiment makes it possible for the user to suppress advertising altogether by paying a higher fee to the ISP.
F. Downloading Updates
According to one embodiment, a variety of data may be transmitted during off-peak hours. For example, users may be allowed to schedule software updates during these hours. While a user is logged in during the day, the user may be presented with the option of upgrading various software on his or her client machine. If the user selects the upgrade, the user may then be presented with the option of having the upgrade downloaded during off-peak hours, thus reducing the amount of time that the user is logged on to the network during peak hours. This is especially advantageous for large downloads that may require prolonged connectivity. It will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art that other types of data may also be downloaded during these off-peak hours.
G. Purchasing Bandwidth and Caching Store Space
According to another embodiment of the present invention, web site publishers can "purchase" bandwidth and caching store 220 space. These web sites can thus ensure that data from their sites is always available to the user. This embodiment allows high-end content providers, such as Disney™ or ESPN, to present a richer experience with their web sites than would otherwise be possible. For example, instead of a user seeing still images and text when they go to the www.disney.com home page (since the Disney web site designers were limited to an amount of data that can download in a few seconds with a 33.6 Kbps modem), the user could be greeted with full-motion video and sound upon reaching the web site. Anything that requires a large download during the night could not be completely up-to-date, but text or other low-bandwidth data elements could download at the 33.6 Kbps rate when the user goes to the site to be overlaid upon the previously cached high-bandwidth data. Thus, visually rich "stock footage" from the caching store 220 can be combined with completely current data downloaded at the time the site is visited to provide a compelling and up-to-date experience for the user.
H. Coordinated Multicast Downloads
Although the previously described embodiments work well for an individual client device 202, there are scalability issues that crop up when there are hundreds of thousands or millions of client devices 202. Although each individual client device 202 would typically require a relatively low-bandwidth data stream (e.g. 33.6 Kbps), one million client devices 202 being simultaneously updated would have an aggregate bandwidth requirement of 33.6 Gigabits/sec. If a significant number of these client devices 202 are attempting to download data from a single content server 210 at once, the server would be overwhelmed and many of client devices 202 would have to wait until the server is available. Additionally, if many of client devices 202 are utilizing any common communications channel simultaneously (e.g. a T1 line leading into a single POP serving many client devices 202), that channel can also become overwhelmed resulting in communications delays. The amount of data that can be downloaded overnight is directly proportional to the percentage of time client device 202 communications channel is active. Thus it is clearly desirable to avoid overloading content servers and shared communications channels so as to minimize client device 202 wait time and maximize the amount of data downloaded.
One embodiment of the present invention coordinates downloads through one or more content servers on the network, utilizing a "multicast" transmission protocols, rather than having data downloads initiated by each client device 202 independently. Some particular multicast protocols are well known in the art and are generally intended to provide live broadcasts of data through a network (e.g. a TCP/IP network such as the Internet), typically for the purpose of disseminating media format data such as sound or video in real-time. For example, multicast protocols can be used to transmit compressed audio or video from a baseball game in progress. Whereas typical TCP/IP communications are one-to-one, multicast communications are one-to-many. Multicast protocols on the Internet allow a bandwidth "slot" to be reserved in advance for the multicast on all the routers carrying the multicast data. Thus, the server generating the multicast can be certain that any client desiring to receive the multicast will be able to do so without a break in the communications, despite adverse traffic conditions on the Internet.
One embodiment of the present invention uses TCP/IP multicast protocols to disseminate data as follows. At a pre-established time, all client devices 202 desiring to be updated connect to the Internet. Each client device connects to a server at a pre-established IP address and downloads information as to what data feeds are available, when they are available, the nature of the data, and the multicast addresses where the data can be accessed. Based on the particular profile(s) of the user(s) of a given client device 202 and an assessment of which data has already been downloaded to client device 202 during previous sessions, client device 202 software makes a determination of which data feeds are most relevant for the user and contain new data which has not previously been downloaded. Then, at the appointed times client device 202 begins to the receive the appropriate data streams.
The data streams used by the presently preferred embodiment can come in several forms, as illustrated in FIGS. 3A-3D. A simple organization is shown in FIG. 3A. Five data streams are shown in this figure (data streams 302-310), each containing data focused on a particular area of interest. The data streams are each 8 hours of a steady download at a given data rate, in this example, 33.6 Kbits/sec. If the five data streams shown here were available on a given night and the user of a client device 202 were interested in Sports data stream 306, client device 202 could then connect to the Sports multicast data stream 306 at 11 PM, and commence downloading into its caching store 220. By 7 AM, if there were no disruptions, client device 202 would have downloaded approximately 118 MBytes of Sports-orient content, which might include video and audio clips, images, text and interactive content. The user would be able to enjoy this Sports content during the day and would benefit from near instant access since the data would be stored on its caching store 220. Of course, if client device 202's user were more interested in News, or Children's content, then the Client could download the News multicast data stream 308 or Children's multicast data stream 310 instead.
Clearly, there could be millions of client devices 202 simultaneously downloading data from multicast data streams, while imposing little burden on either the content server 210 supplying the data streams or Internet communications infrastructure carrying the multicast. The five data streams together constitute only 33.6 Kbits/sec*5=168 Kbits/sec of data bandwidth, a minor burden on either content server 210, or a T1 or a T3 line, especially during off-peak hours. Thus, compared to a million client devices 202 simultaneously requesting individual 33.6 Kbit/sec data streams (resulting in 33.6 Gigabits/sec of aggregate bandwidth), this embodiment results in a much lower aggregate bandwidth.
I. Retransmissions
One limitation to the approach described above is that the communications infrastructure through the Internet and through telephone dial-up connections is imperfect. Packets are dropped, routers have throughput problems, phone connections are dropped, etc. Additionally, the user may choose to use client device 202 during some portion of the designated download hours. Thus, client device 202 may not be available for downloading if it is being used for another purpose. Further, since a residential telephone line is often used for more than one use, the telephone line may be engaged during a portion of the download hours, blocking client device 202 from using it.
Thus, it is essential that the data streams are structured appropriately to allow for the fact that some client device 202s may not receive a perfect uninterrupted data stream. There are a number of approaches that can be applied to this problem. As shown in FIG. 3B, data can be transmitted repeatedly, staggered by some period of time. The same Sports information could be transmitted every hour, as shown in the Sports 1 data stream. If a Client device 202 whose user is interested in Sports receives a bad packet or is disrupted during a download of Sports 1, it simply can wait for hour later to receive the same data again. It will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art that the retransmitted data may be staggered by any appropriate period of time (i.e. greater or less than one hour).
Repeating Sports 1 data reduces the amount of Sports data that can be transmitted over the eight hour period. If Sports was an important enough category, however, one or more additional data streams could be allocated to Sports information. In this example, as illustrated in FIG. 3B, two data streams are allocated to Sports, Sports 1 and Sports 2, each repeating every hour. The repeating data gives ample opportunity for a Client device 202 to download data in subsequent hours if there are any transmission errors (corrupt or missed data packets). Unless there are extremely unreliable communications or if client device 202 or the phone line is tied up for many hours during the download period, client device 202 should have no trouble downloading an hour of Sports 1 and an hour of Sports 2 during the eight hour period.
Some users may be interested in more than one subject area. In this case client device 202 could utilize the repeating data streams shown in FIG. 3B to receive a selection of several content areas. For example, if the user were interested in Fashion, Sports and News, the Client device 202 may download one hour from each data stream for four hours. Also, for one hour, client device 202 may download Advertising (which could be used to help pay for the cost of the other content). In the remaining hours client device 202 may download any data packets that were corrupted or missed in the preceding hours.
This embodiment of the present invention is distinct from current advertising on the Internet, where the advertising is downloaded from a web site, typically in the form of a "banner" associated with a particular Web page. In the current embodiment, advertising can be downloaded as a separate data stream into client device 202. When the user uses client device 202 to view web sites, client device 202 can overlay advertising over any web page, or display advertising between web pages, or while web pages are loading, if, for example, they are not stored in the caching store 220. In this way, an advertiser can be certain its ad is viewed by a user, regardless of which web sites they decide to visit. There is also no bandwidth wasted downloading advertisements tied to particular content that may never be viewed.
Another embodiment of the present invention provides more efficient correction of sporadic transmission errors. Given that Internet communications and high-speed modem communications are for the most part reliable, there should be a relatively small number of data errors during the download of multicast data, and these errors will tend to be sporadic. Consequently, it would not be efficient for client device 202 to sacrifice an entire hour of download time just so it can wait for the retransmission of a packet that was corrupted in the previous hour of a data stream. Moreover, it may be the case that the packet downloads with the same error again, or that there are packet errors in more than one data stream which occur at the same moment during an hour, and therefore cannot both be received at once if only one hour is allocated to correct all errors.
Several improvements in this embodiment alleviate these problems. For one, the repetition interval of the data streams can be made to be smaller with more data streams allocated. This gives more opportunity to correct errors, but it has the disadvantage of using more bandwidth. An alternative improvement is to allocate a block of time for client devices 202 to make individual retries of a conventional nature as shown in FIG. 3C. For example, if a client device 202 downloads data from all five data streams and there were a total of 10 data errors over the course of the downloads, client device 202 may request the content server 210 supplying the data streams to send the particular 10 packets that were dropped in the multicast. If one million client devices 202 receiving multicast data streams all suffer from 10 data errors, there will be 10 million retry requests to content server 210. Although this is a large number of requests, the requests do no necessarily need to be answered instantly, and client devices 202 can wait until it is their turn to have their requests filled.
Yet another improvement is shown in FIG. 3D. As previously described, a block of time is allocated for client devices 202 to make retry requests to content server 210 supplying the data stream. But, rather than responding directly to the requesting client device 202, content server 210 transmits the repeated data on the appropriate multicast data stream. In this way other client devices 202 that experienced the same error will be able to receive the corrected data. This is more efficient than sending individual responses because it is often the case that the same data packet error may affect several recipients of a multicast (e.g. if several client devices 202 are downstream from the same network node that causes the data packet error).
J. Conditional Viewing Restrictions
Certain content that is downloaded using the mechanisms just described may be intended for viewing only by a user paying a special fee. According to one embodiment, client device 202 downloads such so-called for-pay content, but does not allow the user to view the data unless certain conditions are met such as, for example, the transferring of funds to the account of the owner of the for-pay content. Another condition permitting the viewing of the for-pay content might be a trial offer whereby the user may preview part of the for-pay content, but must pay for viewing the rest of the for-pay content.
K. Call Waiting Interrupt
One problem with client device 202 doing an eight-hour download of data through a residential telephone line is that, although the download might occur during times when the user is sleeping, another party might want to reach the user in an emergency. Most United States telephone lines are equipped with a Custom Calling feature known as Call Waiting which introduces a "bong" sound to a telephone call when a third party is calling. By "flashing" the switchhook, the telephone call can be put on hold and the third party will be connected. This Call Waiting capability can be used to allow an incoming call to interrupt a long data download as described in copending patent application entitled "Method and Apparatus For Managing Communications Between A Client And A Server In A Network," having Ser. No. 08/660,087, filed Jun. 3, 1996. The lost data packet recovery mechanisms described previously can be used to recover packets lost during such Call Waiting disruptions.
L. Off-peak Downloads
Although the data download mechanisms described above provide a means to download a great deal of data during off-peak times, a characteristic of this approach is that the data downloaded is not completely up-to-date when the user views it. For example, a news clip that is downloaded at 2 AM and viewed at 6 PM may not be as interesting to the viewer as something more current. A further improvement to the presently preferred embodiment is for client device 202 to utilize any channel idle time when the user is using client device 202 to download any updates to the data that was downloaded previously.
Thus, a clear distinction can be drawn between prior art utilization of idle time and off-peak time on a network, as illustrated in FIG. 4, and improved utilization of idle time and off-peak time on a network, as illustrated in FIG. 5. In FIG. 4, no data is transmitted when the user is connected, but idle, nor is any data transmitted during off-peak time of the day. As can be seen in FIG. 5, a great deal of data (described here as auxiliary data) is transmitted during off-peak times of the day and updated with data transmitted during idle time.
Thus, a method and apparatus for transmitting high bandwidth network content on a low bandwidth communications channel during off peak hours is disclosed. The specific arrangements and methods described herein are merely illustrative of the principles of the present invention. Numerous modifications in form and detail may be made by those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope of the present invention. Although this invention has been shown in relation to a particular preferred embodiment, it should not be considered so limited. Rather, the present invention is limited only by the scope of the appended claims.
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|U.S. Classification
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|International Classification
|Cooperative Classification
|European Classification
|Jun 6, 1997
Owner name: WEBTV NETWORKS, INC., CALIFORNIA
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