Multi-Client Content Delivery Synchronization via Dynamic Timer Adjustment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing content delivery systems face challenges in synchronizing content delivery across multiple client devices due to varying network latencies, leading to dropped communications, errors, and unfairness in timing-sensitive applications, as traditional multicasting protocols do not account for synchronized return communications.
Innovation Solution
The system synchronizes server timers and local timers on client devices through notifications, dynamically adjusting timer durations based on communication latency to ensure overall synchronization and prevent unfairness, using a method that includes transmitting synchronization notifications with a future event time, allowing clients to adjust their local timers and maintain synchronization despite latency differences.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional multicasting protocols are used for content delivery, then content can be delivered to multiple client devices simultaneously, but synchronization of timing and delivery cannot be achieved due to varying network latencies
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by having the server send synchronization notifications to all client devices before the actual content delivery event. Each notification includes a future event time, allowing clients to pre-adjust their local timers to compensate for network latency. This preliminary timing adjustment ensures that when the actual event occurs, all clients are synchronized despite varying network conditions.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback mechanisms where client devices monitor their local timer expiration and compare it with the server's expected timing. When discrepancies are detected due to latency variations, clients can report back to the server, which then adjusts future synchronization notifications. This closed-loop feedback ensures continuous synchronization accuracy across all devices.
2Reliability
If timer durations are fixed for all client devices, then implementation is simple, but synchronization is lost due to differences in round trip latency
Solution Approach 1:
The system transitions from static, fixed timer durations to dynamic timer adjustments. The server sends synchronization notifications that include timing information adapted to each client's specific network conditions. Clients dynamically adjust their local timer durations based on their measured round trip latency, ensuring that timer expiration occurs at the correct synchronized moment for each device regardless of its network speed.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the timing parameters dynamically rather than using fixed values. Each synchronization notification contains a future event time that is calculated based on the client's specific latency characteristics. This parameter adaptation allows the same content delivery event to be synchronized across clients with vastly different network conditions by adjusting the timing parameters individually for each client.
3Ease of manufacture
If content selection is based on single client characteristics, then selection process is simple, but content may not be relevant to equal proportions of multiple client devices
Solution Approach 1:
The system makes the content selection process universal by collecting and analyzing characteristics from multiple client devices simultaneously. Instead of selecting content based on a single client's preferences, the server aggregates data from all participating clients and selects content that will be relevant to the group as a whole. This multi-functional approach allows the same content selection mechanism to serve diverse client needs while maintaining simplicity in the selection algorithm.
Data Source
AI summary
In some aspects, the disclosure is directed to methods and systems for synchronized multi-client content delivery, and a content selection system based on individual and aggregated scores for the content items, to generate bundles or sets of content items having approximately corresponding scores. Server timers and local timers on client devices may be synchronized via notifications, and timer durations dynamically adjusted when client requests and responses are sent prior to client-side timer expiration, but received after server-side timer expiration, indicating communication latency has caused desynchronization. Timers may be adjusted on a global basis or per-client device basis. Through scoring and bundling, sets of content items that may be relevant to approximately an equal share of the recipient client devices may be selected and transmitted.