Subscription Service for Media Authentication
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing systems for authenticating and authorizing access to media content through multi-channel video program distributors (MVPDs) are inefficient during high-traffic periods, leading to delayed or denied access for subscribers, and incur high costs for content providers due to resource-intensive operations and revenue-sharing fees for outsourcing identity and payment processing.
Innovation Solution
A subscription service that communicates with identity and payment service providers to authenticate and authorize subscribers, reducing reliance on MVPDs by using APIs to manage subscriber identities, process payments, and check entitlements, thereby enabling efficient access to media content without MVPD bottlenecks.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If MVPD authentication and authorization systems are used to verify subscriber access to content, then security and access control are ensured, but system performance deteriorates during high-traffic periods causing delays and denied access
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the authentication and authorization functions from the MVPD system by introducing a subscription service that independently verifies subscriber entitlement. This separates the identity verification process into distinct components: the MVPD maintains subscriber lists while the subscription service handles real-time authentication requests, allowing parallel processing and reducing bottlenecks during high-traffic periods
Solution Approach 2:
The subscription service acts as an intermediary between content providers and MVPD authentication systems. It receives authentication requests from content providers, independently verifies subscriber status using cached subscriber information, and returns authorization decisions without requiring real-time communication with MVPD servers, thereby eliminating the bottleneck
2Device complexity
If MVPD servers perform all authentication and authorization operations, then centralized control is maintained, but server overload occurs during peak demand periods
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the authentication system into multiple independent components: MVPD servers maintain subscriber data while subscription services handle verification operations. This distribution of functionality across multiple servers prevents any single server from becoming a bottleneck during peak demand, as authentication requests can be processed in parallel by multiple subscription service instances
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a new architectural dimension by adding subscription services as an intermediate layer between content providers and MVPD systems. This additional layer operates independently on a different computational plane, allowing authentication operations to occur without contending for resources with the core MVPD delivery system
3Ease of operation
If content providers outsource identity and payment processing to MVPDs, then operational simplicity is achieved, but revenue-sharing fees increase costs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent enables content providers to perform self-service authentication by implementing local verification of subscriber entitlement using subscription service APIs. Instead of relying on MVPD-mediated authentication, content providers can independently verify subscriber status and enforce access control, eliminating the need to pay revenue-sharing fees while maintaining operational capability
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the authentication and authorization functions from the MVPD system and places them directly with content providers through subscription service integration. This extraction removes the intermediary MVPD from the authentication transaction, allowing content providers to manage access control independently and retain full revenue while maintaining operational simplicity through standardized API interfaces
Data Source
AI summary
Embodiments are provided for automatically providing subscriber authentication and authorization services. For example, a subscription service communicates with an identity service provider to authenticate subscribers requesting video content from programmers and a payment service provider to confirm that authenticated subscribers are authorized to receive the content. The subscription service receives a media request for a programmer to provide media content to a subscriber device. The media request includes subscriber information for a subscriber associated with the subscriber device. The subscription service transmits the subscriber information to an identity service provider and receives the subscriber's authentication status from the identity service provider. The subscription service sends an entitlement check request to a payment service provider to determine whether the subscriber is authorized to access the content. Then, based on the entitlement check, the subscription service informs the programmer that the subscriber device is entitled to access to the requested media content.