Abstract: A method for managing content, within a video-on-demand system, which includes receiving, at a first content source, a request for content. The method also includes determining that the content is not available from the first content source. The method also includes determining that a second content source cost to retrieve the content from a second content source is less than a third content source cost to retrieve the content from a third content source. The costs are determined based on a network impact to fetch the content to the first content source. The method also includes in response to determining that the second content source cost is less than the third content source cost, fetching the content from the second content source. The first content source, the second content source, and the third content source each maintain a different subset of content available from a master content source.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for downloading content within a video-on-demand system is provided herein. During operation a Video Home Office (VHO) will cache a subset of the Video Service Office (VSO) content. When a user requests content that is not stored on the VHO, the VHO will request that content from another VHO or the VSO. In order to reduce the additional network load imposed during item forwarding while attempting to balance the total load on all the links interconnecting the VSO and VHOs, recorded traffic history metrics are used to predict their future or current traffic. A VHO or VSO is chosen for fetching the content that will result in the lowest predicted traffic on the interconnecting links.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for downloading content within a video-on-demand system is provided herein. During operation a Video Home Office (VHO) will cache a subset of the Video Service Office (VSO) content. When a user requests content that is not stored on the VHO, the VHO will request that content from another VHO or the VSO. In order to reduce the additional network load imposed during item forwarding while attempting to balance the total load on all the links interconnecting the VSO and VHOs, recorded traffic history metrics are used to predict their future or current traffic. A VHO or VSO is chosen for fetching the content that will result in the lowest predicted traffic on the interconnecting links.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for downloading content within a video-on-demand system is provided herein. During operation a Video Home Office (VHO) will cache a subset of the Video Service Office (VSO) content. When a user requests content that is not stored on the VHO, the VHO will request that content from another VHO or the VSO. In order to reduce the additional network load imposed during item forwarding while attempting to balance the total load on all the links interconnecting the VSO and VHOs, recorded traffic history metrics are used to predict their future or current traffic. A VHO or VSO is chosen for fetching the content that will result in the lowest predicted traffic on the interconnecting links.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for downloading content within a video-on-demand system is provided herein. During operation a Video Home Office (VHO) will cache a subset of the Video Service Office (VSO) content. When a user requests content that is not stored on the VHO, the VHO will request that content from another VHO or the VSO. In order to reduce the additional network load imposed during item forwarding while attempting to balance the total load on all the links interconnecting the VSO and VHOs, recorded traffic history metrics are used to predict their future or current traffic. A VHO or VSO is chosen for fetching the content that will result in the lowest predicted traffic on the interconnecting links.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for downloading content within a video-on-demand system is provided herein. During operation a Video Home Office (VHO) will cache a subset of the Video Service Office (VSO) content. When a user requests content that is not stored on the VHO, the VHO will request that content from another VHO or the VSO. In order to reduce the additional network load imposed during item forwarding while attempting to balance the total load on all the links interconnecting the VSO and VHOs, recorded traffic history metrics are used to predict their future or current traffic. A VHO or VSO is chosen for fetching the content that will result in the lowest predicted traffic on the interconnecting links.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for downloading content within a video-on-demand system is provided herein. During operation a Video Home Office (VHO) will cache a subset of the Video Service Office (VSO) content. When a user requests content that is not stored on the VHO, the VHO will request that content from another VHO or the VSO. In order to reduce the additional network load imposed during item forwarding while attempting to balance the total load on all the links interconnecting the VSO and VHOs, recorded traffic history metrics are used to predict their future or current traffic. A VHO or VSO is chosen for fetching the content that will result in the lowest predicted traffic on the interconnecting links.

Abstract: Communication nodes, acting as intermediate routers for communication packets transmitted between a source node and a destination node, are provided with different access rights to the fields of the routed communication packets. Routes of intermediate routers between the source node and the destination node are discovered and the identities of intermediate routers on the discovered routes are collected. The aggregate trust levels of the intermediate routers are computed allowing the most trusted route to be selected. Encryption keys are securely distributed to intermediate routers on the most trusted route based on the trust level of the intermediate routers and fields of the communication packets are encrypted with encryption keys corresponding to the assigned trust level. Intermediated nodes are thereby prevented from accessing selected fields of the communication packets.

Abstract: During each node's awake period, each node multicasts the relative time or slot of their next awake period (beaconing interval) to all neighboring nodes. This enables each node to intelligently and independently schedule the time slot of its next transmission based on the beaconing intervals of the nodes it has heard from. During each active (awake) interval, a node builds statistics of the future transmission/receive times of its neighbors and uses them to determine its next transmission time. In one proposed implementation, at the end of an active interval, a node picks the time slot with the highest counter for its next transmission. In another proposed implementation, at the end of an active interval, a node picks one of the slots with a weighted probability; the weight of each slot is proportional with the value of the counter associated with the slot.

Abstract: Communication nodes, acting as intermediate routers for communication packets transmitted between a source node and a destination node, are provided with different access rights to the fields of the routed communication packets. Routes of intermediate routers between the source node and the destination node are discovered and the identities of intermediate routers on the discovered routes are collected. The aggregate trust levels of the intermediate routers are computed allowing the most trusted route to be selected. Encryption keys are securely distributed to intermediate routers on the most trusted route based on the trust level of the intermediate routers and fields of the communication packets are encrypted with encryption keys corresponding to the assigned trust level. Intermediated nodes are thereby prevented from accessing selected fields of the communication packets.

Abstract: Communication nodes, acting as intermediate routers for communication packets transmitted between a source node and a destination node, are provided with different access rights to the fields of the routed communication packets. Routes of intermediate routers between the source node and the destination node are discovered and the identities of intermediate routers on the discovered routes are collected. The aggregate trust levels of the intermediate routers are computed allowing the most trusted route to be selected. Encryption keys are securely distributed to intermediate routers on the most trusted route based on the trust level of the intermediate routers and fields of the communication packets are encrypted with encryption keys corresponding to the assigned trust level. Intermediated nodes are thereby prevented from accessing selected fields of the communication packets.

Abstract: During each node's awake period, each node multicasts the relative time or slot of their next awake period (beaconing interval) to all neighboring nodes. This enables each node to intelligently and independently schedule the time slot of its next transmission based on the beaconing intervals of the nodes it has heard from. During each active (awake) interval, a node builds statistics of the future transmission/receive times of its neighbors and uses them to determine its next transmission time. In one proposed implementation, at the end of an active interval, a node picks the time slot with the highest counter for its next transmission.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are disclosed that authenticate a user of a mobile device with motion sensors. During a learning session, the user initializes the mobile device by providing a motion sample. The mobile device extracts motion features that are unique to the user and converts them to parity bits and to a password shadow. During a recognition session, a motion pattern is gathered from the user moving the mobile device as if it were a virtual pen. The mobile device then uses the stored parity bits to correct small differences between motion patterns exhibited by the same user at different times. The mobile device converts the corrected motion pattern into a motion password that is compared with the stored password shadow. A user is authenticated only if the two values coincide. The system erases the generated motion password.

Abstract: During operation, each client device will be provided with a list of addresses for all nodes within a network. The addresses for all nodes will be unique to a particular client device such that {address(node 1), address(node 2), . . . address(node n)} for a first client does not equal {address(node 1), address(node 2), . . . address(node n)} for a second client. Each client's address for a particular node will preferably only be known by the client and a naming server. When sending a message to a destination node, a client device will create a source route consisting of the unique addresses. Because each client's address for a particular node will only be known to itself and the naming server, anyone who intercepts the route will not know what nodes along the route are used for routing the message.

Abstract: A system (150) and method (200) for peer-to-peer content sharing in an ad-hoc network is provided. The system can include a plurality of peers (102) and a super peer (110). The super peer provides a continuous power supply (112) and mass storage (111) for distributing and caching shared content. The super peer can monitor (202) a plurality of requests for content, identify (204) popular content from the plurality of requests, and distribute (214) the popular content to the peers to offload content sourcing responsibilities. The super peer can manage a want-list (320), a popularity-list (330), and a source-list (340) for acquiring and distributing popular content.

Abstract: During operation, each client device will be provided with a list of addresses for all nodes within a network. The addresses for all nodes will be unique to a particular client device such that {address(node 1), address(node 2), . . . address(node n)} for a first client does not equal {address(node 1), address(node 2), . . . address(node n)} for a second client. Each client's address for a particular node will preferably only be known by the client and a naming server. When sending a message to a destination node, a client device will create a source route consisting of the unique addresses. Because each client's address for a particular node will only be known to itself and the naming server, anyone who intercepts the route will not know what nodes along the route are used for routing the message.

Abstract: Communication nodes, acting as intermediate routers for communication packets transmitted between a source node and a destination node, are provided with different access rights to the fields of the routed communication packets. Routes of intermediate routers between the source node and the destination node are discovered and the identities of intermediate routers on the discovered routes are collected. The aggregate trust levels of the intermediate routers are computed allowing the most trusted route to be selected. Encryption keys are securely distributed to intermediate routers on the most trusted route based on the trust level of the intermediate routers and fields of the communication packets are encrypted with encryption keys corresponding to the assigned trust level. Intermediated nodes are thereby prevented from accessing selected fields of the communication packets.