Network Intermediary for Audience Measurement Precision
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current audience measurement methods, such as server-side and client-side implementations, are either inaccurate or costly and intrusive, failing to provide reliable data on unique subscribers and content usage due to separate server logs and the need for monitoring devices.
Innovation Solution
Intercepting data packets between client computers and content servers to identify unique subscribers and content names, computing audience measurement metrics based on this information, and applying heuristics to separate user-generated from machine-generated traffic.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If server-side implementation with server logs is used, then measurement coverage is improved, but measurement precision deteriorates due to inability to identify unique subscribers accurately
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary component (audience measurement system) that sits between the content server and clients, intercepting data packets to extract both subscriber identification information and content access information. This intermediary approach allows simultaneous achievement of comprehensive coverage (by capturing all traffic) and precise measurement (by extracting detailed information from intercepted packets), resolving the contradiction between coverage and precision that plagues pure server-side logging.
2Measurement precision
If client-side implementation with monitoring devices is used, then measurement precision is improved, but device complexity and cost increase due to need for separate monitoring devices at each customer computer
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the functions of subscriber identification, content tracking, and audience measurement into a single centralized system that intercepts data packets at the network level. This eliminates the need for separate monitoring devices at each customer computer while maintaining precise measurement capabilities, thereby reducing device complexity and deployment costs while preserving measurement precision.
Solution Approach 2:
By positioning an intermediary measurement system at the network level (between clients and content servers), the patent achieves precise client-side level measurement without requiring actual client-side monitoring devices. This intermediary approach captures detailed information from data packets while centralizing the measurement infrastructure, thus avoiding the complexity and costs of distributed client-side deployment.
3Measurement precision
If client-side implementation with monitoring devices is used, then measurement precision is improved, but ease of operation deteriorates due to intrusive nature requiring customer permission
Solution Approach 1:
The patent positions the measurement system as an intermediary at the network level rather than installing it on customer devices. This approach maintains the measurement precision of client-side implementation while avoiding the intrusiveness of installing monitoring software on customer computers, thereby eliminating the need to obtain individual customer permissions and significantly improving ease of operation.
4Ease of operation
If server-side implementation is used, then ease of operation is improved, but measurement precision deteriorates due to reliance on IP addresses that cannot distinguish multiple subscribers
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary system that intercepts data packets between clients and servers, extracting detailed subscriber identification information from the packet data. This intermediary approach maintains the operational simplicity of server-side implementation (centralized control, no client software needed) while dramatically improving measurement precision by capturing unique subscriber identifiers from the intercepted traffic, enabling accurate distinction between multiple subscribers.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the crude mechanical approach of using IP addresses (which cannot distinguish multiple subscribers) with a more sophisticated information extraction method. By intercepting and analyzing data packets, the system extracts precise subscriber identification information, substituting the inadequate IP-based tracking mechanism with a more accurate packet-analysis-based identification system while maintaining centralized server-side operation.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods, systems, and computer-readable media for providing network-based audience measurement are provided. Data packets are intercepted between a client computer and a content server. Unique subscribers and content names are identified based on the data packets. One or more audience measurement metrics are computed based on the unique subscribers and the content names.