Controlling quality of service and content quality based on user relationships

Abstract

A system and method are provided for controlling Quality of Service (QoS), content quality, or both QoS and content quality in a content sharing network based on user relationships. More specifically, QoS, content quality, or both QoS and content quality may be controlled based on a relationship of a user of a network node requesting content and either a user of a network node hosting the requested content or an owner of the requested content, a relationship between the user of the network node requesting the content and the content, or any combination thereof.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method comprising:
 receiving a request for content from a requesting network node associated with a requesting user;   controlling at least one quality parameter for serving the request based on a relationship of the requesting user and a person associated with the requested content; and   effecting transfer of the requested content to the requesting node according to the at least one quality parameter.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein controlling the at least one quality parameter comprises controlling at least one Quality of Service (QoS) parameter. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2  wherein controlling the at least one QoS parameter comprises controlling at least one parameter selected from a group consisting of: bandwidth allocated for serving the request, a response speed, a position of the request in a request queue, and a priority assigned to a thread allocated for processing the request. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  wherein controlling the at least one quality parameter comprises controlling at least one content quality parameter defining a quality of the requested content to be transferred to the requesting node. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4  wherein controlling the at least one content quality parameter comprises controlling at least one parameter selected from a group consisting of: an encoding algorithm used to encode the requested content, at least one encoding parameter, file size, resolution, color depth, and bit rate. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 4  further comprising generating a desired version of the requested content based on the at least one content quality parameter, wherein effecting transfer of the requested content comprises effecting transfer of the desired version of the requested content. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the person associated with the requested content is an owner of the content and controlling the at least one quality parameter for serving the request comprises controlling the at least one quality parameter for serving the request based on a relationship of the requesting user and the owner of the requested content. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the requested content is hosted by a peer node in a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) network, the person associated with the requested content is a user of the peer node, and controlling the at least one quality parameter for serving the request comprises controlling the at least one quality parameter for serving the request based on a relationship of the requesting user and the user of the peer node. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the requested content is media content, the person associated with the requested content is a person captured within the media content, and controlling the at least one quality parameter for serving the request comprises controlling the at least one quality parameter for serving the request based on a relationship of the requesting user and the person captured within the requested content. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the requested content is media content, the person associated with the requested content is a person associated with a thing captured within the media content, and controlling the at least one quality parameter for serving the request comprises controlling the at least one quality parameter for serving the request based on a relationship of the requesting user and the person associated with the thing captured within the requested content. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising determining the relationship of the requesting user and the person associated with the requested content based on social network profiles for a plurality of users including the requesting user and the person associated with the requested content. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11  wherein the social network profile for each one of the plurality of users identifies at least one other user from the plurality of users known by the one of the plurality of users. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12  wherein controlling the at least one quality parameter comprises:
 identifying a relationship path directly or indirectly linking the requesting user and the person associated with the requested content using the social network profiles for the plurality of users; 
 scoring the relationship based on the identified relationship path; and 
 controlling the at least one quality parameter based on the score of the identified relationship path. 
 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13  wherein scoring the relationship comprises scoring the relationship based on a degree of the relationship between the requesting user and the person associated with the requested content as indicated by the identified relationship path. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 13  wherein the identified relationship path comprises a series of relationships between a number of the plurality of users linking the requesting user to the person associated with the requested content, and scoring the relationship comprises scoring each of the series of relationships and combining the scores for the series of relationships. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15  wherein scoring each of the series of relationships further comprises assigning weights to the series of relationships. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16  wherein assigning the weights to the series of relationships comprises assigning the weights to the series of relationships based on a categorization of each of the series of relationships. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17  wherein the categorization of each of the series of relationships is a user defined categorization. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 1  wherein receiving the request comprises receiving the request at a mediating server interconnecting a plurality of peer nodes in a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) network, and effecting transfer of the requested content to the requesting node comprises:
 providing a request for the requested content to a one of the plurality of peer nodes hosting the requested content; 
 receiving the requested content from the one of the plurality of peer nodes; and 
 providing the requested content to the requesting node based on the at least one quality parameter. 
 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19  wherein controlling the at least one quality parameter comprises controlling at least one Quality of Service (QoS) parameter defining a QoS provided by the mediating server for the request. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 19  wherein controlling the at least one quality parameter comprises controlling at least one content quality parameter controlling a content quality of the requested content provided to the requesting node from the mediating server. 
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 19  wherein the at least one quality parameter comprises at least one content quality parameter, and effecting transfer of the requested content further comprises:
 providing the at least one content quality parameter to the one of the plurality of peer nodes hosting the requested content; 
 wherein the peer node provides the requested content to the mediating server according to the at least one content quality parameter. 
 
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 19  wherein the at least one quality parameter comprises at least one content quality parameter, and providing the requested content to the requesting node comprises:
 generating a desired version of the requested content at the mediating server according to the at least one content quality parameter; and 
 providing the desired version of the requested content to the requesting node. 
 
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 19  wherein the at least one quality parameter comprises at least one Quality of Service (QoS) parameter, and effecting transfer of the requested content to the requesting node further comprises providing the at least one QoS parameter to at least one of a plurality of upstream network nodes comprising the peer node hosting the requested content, wherein the at least one of the plurality of upstream network nodes proactively control a provided QoS based on the at least one QoS parameter. 
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 1  wherein receiving the request comprises receiving the request at a central server of a centrally hosted content sharing network and effecting transfer of the requesting content comprises transferring the requested content from the central server to the requesting node. 
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 25  wherein controlling the at least one quality parameter comprises controlling at least one Quality of Service (QoS) parameter provided by the central server for the request. 
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 25  wherein controlling the at least one quality parameter comprises controlling at least one content quality parameter defining a quality of the requested content provided to the requesting node from the central server. 
     
     
         28 . A mediating server interconnecting a plurality of peer nodes to form a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) content sharing network comprising:
 a communication interface communicatively coupling the mediating server to the plurality of peer nodes; and   a control system associated with the communication interface and adapted to:
 receive a request for content from a requesting network node associated with a requesting user; 
 control at least one quality parameter for serving the request based on a relationship of the requesting user and a person associated with the requested content; and 
 effect transfer of the requested content from a one of the plurality of peer nodes hosting the requested content to the requesting network node according to the at least one quality parameter. 
   
     
     
         29 . The mediating server of  claim 28  wherein the at least one quality parameter comprises at least one Quality of Service (QoS) parameter. 
     
     
         30 . The mediating server of  claim 28  wherein the at least one quality parameter comprises at least one content quality parameter defining a quality of the requested content to be transferred to the requesting network node. 
     
     
         31 . The mediating server of  claim 28  wherein the person associated with the requested content is an owner of the content. 
     
     
         32 . The mediating server of  claim 28  wherein the person associated with the requested content is a user of the one of the plurality of peer nodes hosting the requested content. 
     
     
         33 . The mediating server of  claim 28  wherein the requested content is media content and the person associated with the requested content is a person captured within the media content. 
     
     
         34 . The mediating server of  claim 28  wherein the requested content is media content and the person associated with the requested content is a person associated with a thing captured within the media content. 
     
     
         35 . A central server for a centrally hosted content sharing network comprising:
 a communication interface communicatively coupling the central server to a plurality of user nodes via a network; and   a control system associated with the communication interface and adapted to:
 receive a request for content from a requesting user node associated with a requesting user; 
 control at least one quality parameter for serving the request based on a relationship of the requesting user and a person associated with the requested content; and 
 transfer the requested content to the requesting user node according to the at least one quality parameter. 
   
     
     
         36 . The central server of  claim 35  wherein the at least one quality parameter comprises at least one Quality of Service (QoS) parameter. 
     
     
         37 . The central server of  claim 35  wherein the at least one quality parameter comprises at least one content quality parameter defining a quality of the requested content to be transferred to the requesting user node. 
     
     
         38 . The central server of  claim 35  wherein the person associated with the requested content is an owner of the content. 
     
     
         39 . The central server of  claim 35  wherein the requested content is media content and the person associated with the requested content is a person captured within the media content. 
     
     
         40 . The central server of  claim 35  wherein the requested content is media content and the person associated with the requested content is a person associated with a thing captured within the media content.