Ping-Based Interaction Accounting for Content Delivery Latency
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing content delivery networks face latency issues due to redirect chains when accounting for user interactions with electronic content, as they often rely on traditional redirect-based techniques that can introduce delays in recording interactions.
Innovation Solution
The method involves determining whether a user device is ping-enabled and generating a hyperlink with a ping attribute, allowing for ping-based accounting that sends interaction requests in parallel with navigation, thereby eliminating extra latency by using the HTML ping attribute to notify accounting servers of interactions without relying on redirect chains.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional redirect-based accounting techniques are used, then interactions can be recorded, but latency is introduced due to redirect chains
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the accounting notification function from the redirect chain by using the HTML ping attribute to send asynchronous notifications to accounting servers. This separates the interaction recording process from the navigation flow, eliminating the latency caused by sequential redirect processing while maintaining reliable interaction tracking.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements preliminary action by embedding the ping attribute in hyperlinks before user interaction. When users click content items, the accounting server is notified asynchronously through pre-configured ping requests, allowing interaction recording to begin immediately without waiting for redirect chain completion, thus reducing latency while ensuring reliable accounting.
2Loss of time
If ping-based accounting is used, then latency is reduced by sending notifications in parallel, but compatibility issues arise with non-ping-enabled devices
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dynamics by making the accounting approach adaptive based on device capabilities. The system dynamically determines whether a device is ping-enabled and switches between ping-based accounting (for enabled devices) and traditional redirect-based accounting (for non-enabled devices). This dynamic adaptation maintains low latency for compatible devices while ensuring universal compatibility across all device types.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the accounting parameter from a fixed redirect-based method to a flexible method that can switch between ping-based and redirect-based approaches. By monitoring device capabilities and adjusting the accounting mechanism accordingly, the system optimizes latency performance for ping-enabled devices while maintaining broad device compatibility through fallback to traditional methods for non-enabled devices.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for reliably using ping to account for interactions with electronic content includes receiving a request for a content item from a user device, selecting a content item in response to the request, determining whether the user device is ping enabled, and generating a hyperlink for inclusion with the selected content item. The hyperlink has a target URL and a ping attribute. At least one of the target URL and the ping attribute is based on a result of the determination whether the user device is ping enabled. The method further includes distributing the content item and the hyperlink to the user device and receiving a ping request from the user device. The ping request includes the target URL and an identifier of the distributed content item. The method further includes accounting for the interaction in response to receiving the ping request from the user device.