Publish-Subscribe Messaging Broker for Cable Network Content Delivery
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Solution Overview
Problem
Cable network infrastructure, optimized for one-way downstream communication, faces challenges in upgrading to two-way digital services, requiring new equipment and complex reconfiguration to manage bandwidth and deliver targeted content efficiently.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a publish-subscribe messaging system within a content network that uses a broker component to register subscribers, generate random numbers for message filtering, and utilize a rules engine for targeted content delivery, enabling incremental rollout, content confirmation, and notification tracking.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a publish-subscribe messaging system is implemented to enable targeted content delivery, then content delivery efficiency is improved, but network complexity increases due to the need for broker components and message filtering mechanisms
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a broker component as an intermediary between publishers and subscribers. The broker manages message routing, subscription registration, and filtering based on topic identifiers. This mediator architecture enables efficient targeted content delivery without requiring direct peer-to-peer connections, thus improving delivery efficiency while centralizing complexity in the broker rather than distributing it across all network nodes.
2Loss of energy
If random number filtering is used to segment subscriber groups, then bandwidth usage is minimized by delivering content only to relevant subscribers, but message tracking complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the subscriber base into groups based on random number assignments. Each subscriber is assigned a random number that determines which segment they belong to. Publishers can target specific segments by including matching random numbers in message filters. This segmentation enables precise bandwidth optimization by delivering content only to relevant subscriber groups while the broker manages the tracking complexity centrally through subscription records and filter matching.
3Reliability
If incremental rollout of content updates is implemented using subscriber segmentation, then system reliability is improved by reducing network overload risk, but implementation complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements incremental content rollout by periodically delivering updates to different subscriber segments in sequence rather than simultaneously. The broker manages staged deployment by filtering messages to specific random number segments at different time intervals. This periodic action to different segments prevents network overload that would occur with simultaneous universal delivery, while the broker's centralized control manages the implementation complexity of the staged rollout process.
Data Source
AI summary
A plurality of subscribers are registered to receive, from a publisher component, at client devices, via a broker component, at least one of messages and content pertaining to a first topic. Each of the subscribers is caused to generate one of N random numbers. A different one of the N random numbers is generated by each of the subscribers. Each of the subscribers is instructed to listen only for the messages and content pertaining to the first topic and corresponding to the corresponding one of the N random numbers. The at least one of messages and content pertaining to the first topic are published to those of the subscribers associated with each one of the N random numbers, number by number, until the at least one of messages and content pertaining to the first topic has been published to all of the plurality of subscribers.