Abstract: In an online advertising system, preferred cost bidding allows advertisers to specify a preferred “average” cost target (e.g., cost-per-click (CPC), cost per thousand impressions (CPM)), rather than a “maximum” cost target (e.g., maximum CPC, CPM). The system attempts to bring the advertiser's overall advertising cost as close as possible to the advertiser's specified average cost, using an iterative process (e.g., a feedback loop) that updates bids for keywords using historical performance data for the key words. In some implementations, a bid is automatically adjusted in an adaptive way to compensate for natural changes in fluctuations of the market using historical performance data to compute a bid that is likely to result in an average cost (per click) that is close to the advertiser's preferred average target cost (per click).

Abstract: An interference based dynamic channel assignment scheme for a wireless communication network, for self configuring dynamic channel assignment of a plurality of channels, comprises the steps of: prioritizing a channel list and prioritizing a selected subset of the prioritized channel list. In further enhancements of the present invention, prioritizing a channel list is distributed on a per cell/sector basis so that prioritization is independent of frequency usage information from other cells/sectors and prioritization is based upon uplink and downlink characteristics.

Abstract: The invention relates to a dynamic channel allocation system for a mobile communication system wherein mobile units communicate with the base station on allotted channels. The channel allocations are determined according to a framework of network flows including flow paths with nodes representing active mobile units, base stations and channels used for communication between active mobile units and their respective base stations. A new call from a mobile unit is added by finding the shortest available augmenting path for the added unit. The edges between nodes can include cost and capacity factors which can be used to determine desirable reconfigurations for the network.

Abstract: A method is disclosed for maintaining and updating statistical trends of network delay to provide a predictive approach to synchronization. Necessary information, such as timing and stream ID information, is gathered from streams of data and future network delay values are predicted by constructing a measured packet-delay distribution curve. In a preferred embodiment, the inventive system maintains a delay histogram with a discrete set of quantization bins, each storing the relative frequency with which a particular delay value is expected to occur among the arriving packets. The histogram is then used to approximate the distribution in the form of a curve.

Abstract: A method and system for adaptively determining an operating point for a transmitter-receiver pair in a wireless communication network. The receiver receives data over an uplink and measures an average observed word error rate avg.sub.-- WER of the received data and transmits the average observed word error rate avg.sub.-- WER over a downlink to the transmitter when the average observed word error rate avg.sub.-- WER is not within an acceptable word error rate range. The transmitter receives the average observed word error rate avg.sub.-- WER over the downlink and determines a power-code pair (P,c) for the transmitter based on the average observed word error rate avg.sub.-- WER. The power code pair (P,c) defines an operating point of the transmitter, where P of the power-code pair is a selected transmit power level of the transmitter and c of the power-code pair is a selected forward error correcting code used for encoding the data. The receiver can also determine a predicted word error rate WER.sub.

Abstract: A server system for processing client requests received over a communication network includes a cluster of N document servers and at least one redirection server. The redirection server receives a client request from the network and redirects it to one of the document servers, based on a set of pre-computed redirection probabilities. Each of the document servers may be an HTTP server that manages a set of documents locally and can service client requests only for the locally-available documents. A set of documents are distributed across the document servers in accordance with a load distribution algorithm which may utilize the access rates of the documents as a metric for distributing the documents across the servers and determining the redirection probabilities. The load distribution algorithm attempts to equalize the sum of the access rates of all the documents stored at a given document server across all of the document servers.

Abstract: A dynamic combined power control and forward error correction control (FEC) technique for mobile radio systems which illustratively decreases the power consumed by wireless transmitters and increases the number of simultaneous connections which may be supported thereby. Individual transmitter-receiver pairs may adaptively determine the minimal power and FEC required to satisfy specified quality-of-service (QOS) constraints. Specifically, in accordance with an illustrative embodiment of the present invention, a first portion of a signal is encoded with a first code to generate a first encoded signal portion. Then, the first encoded signal portion is transmitted with a first power level. Next, parameter data is received, wherein the parameter data is representative of one or more characteristics of a received signal portion having been received by the receiver, the received signal portion having been based on the transmitted first encoded signal portion.

Abstract: A network data stream synchronization method and system are disclosed. Operating delay and loss parameters are accepted and a data stream buffer is initialized. The network delay experienced by a data packet is determined and a buffer delay is imposed to provide a fixed end-to-end delay. Packets arriving too late to be played within the fixed end-to-end delay are discarded. Network delay models may be updated and clock drifts may be detected and compensated for using historical buffer data.

Abstract: A method is disclosed for reducing handover failure probability in cellular networks which includes the steps of determining whether a mobile subscriber is traversing a pre-handover zone defined in each cell of the network, reserving a free channel in an adjacent cell for the mobile subscriber traversing the pre-handover zone, and granting the free channel to the mobile subscriber upon entering a handover region extending across the boundary of the adjacent cells provided that a free channel is available at such a time, and in the alternative, if a free channel is not available at such a time, the handover request is queued until a free channel becomes available.

Abstract: A method of prioritizing handoff requests in a cellular system is disclosed in which at least one handoff request for assignment of a communication channel is received from at least one mobile unit. A cutoff time for the handoff request is determined. The handoff requests are arranged in a priority queue based on the cutoff time associated with each handoff request. Available communication channels are assigned to the mobile units requesting handoff in the order of the queue.