Abstract: There is described a system for adding content to a data container, the data container comprising one or more segments arranged in a sequence, each segment containing payload data and wherein at least one of the one or more segments is compressed. The system comprises parsing through at least a portion of the data container so as to determine at least one of a beginning and an end of the sequence of segments; and adding content to the data container at the at least one of the beginning and the end of the sequence of segments, while the at least one of the segments remains compressed.

Abstract: A method for dynamically configuring a video stream, including: identifying player control metadata attributes for an input video stream, wherein the input video stream is received from an origin server; storing the identified metadata attributes to a memory device; and dynamically inserting the metadata attributes into an output video stream in real-time.

Abstract: A domain name system (DNS) server is disclosed. The DNS server includes: a receiver to receive a DNS query comprising a domain name from a client device, wherein the domain name corresponds to a host server; a modifier to append a domain to an end of the domain name to create a modified domain name; and a mapping engine to compare the modified domain name to a local cache, wherein the local cache comprises a list of domain names, at least some of which are to be routed to an Internet Protocol (IP) address corresponding to an intermediate server.

Abstract: A system and method for allowing requests generated as a result of dynamic URLs to be efficiently looked up in a cache are provided. The system and method involve receiving a request for a content element, the request being generated from a dynamic URL. A static content element identifier is generated from the request. In an embodiment, the static content element identifier includes only the content identification parameters and the dynamic parameters are removed. The static content element identifier is then used to determine whether the content element is in the cache.

Abstract: There is described a system of operating a network entity to distribute a media stream in a communications network. A plurality of different versions of the media stream are available from a content source, each version having a respective quality level different to that of the other versions and each version of the media stream comprises a plurality of consecutive portions. A first request is received from a user device for a portion of a first one of the versions of the media stream stored at a content source and a caching procedure is performed in response to receiving the first request.

Abstract: There is described a system for adding content to a data container, the data container comprising one or more segments arranged in a sequence, each segment containing payload data and wherein at least one of the one or more segments is compressed. The system comprises parsing through at least a portion of the data container so as to determine at least one of a beginning and an end of the sequence of segments; and adding content to the data container at the at least one of the beginning and the end of the sequence of segments, while the at least one of the segments remains compressed.

Abstract: A method, apparatus and non-transitory computer medium are provided for encoding data of a media file for playback by a user equipment in a communications network. A request for a range of encoded data is received from the user equipment, the encoded data to be generated by encoding data from an original media file. The request for a range of encoded data is converted into a request for a range of original data from the original media file. The range of original data is retrieved and the range of original data is encoded to generate encoded data. The requested range of encoded data, from the generated encoded data, is provided to the user equipment.

Abstract: A method, apparatus and computer program product for maintaining a connection cache at an intermediate server, wherein the connection cache relating to resource requests from a plurality of devices to a plurality of servers remote therefrom. The method comprises monitoring resource requests addressed to a plurality of said remote servers during a first time period; generating statistics data on the basis of the monitored resource requests; establishing a plurality of connections from the intermediate server to a subset of the plurality of remote servers, said subset being determined on the basis of the generated statistics data; and storing data indicative of the plurality of established connections in a connection cache. Caching of connections in this manner ensures efficient use of proxy server resources by only caching connections to “popular” remote servers.

Abstract: Methods and transcoding proxies for transcoding media streams are described. In one embodiment, a method for transcoding a media stream that is delivered to an end-user device over a communications network involves selecting a transcoding technique for the media stream, transcoding a portion of the media stream using the selected transcoding technique, streaming the transcoded portion of the media stream to the end-user device, while the transcoded portion of the media stream is being streamed to the end-user device, detecting a change in a condition of the communications network, selecting a different transcoding technique in response to the change in the condition of the communications network, transcoding a subsequent portion of the media stream using the different transcoding technique, and streaming the transcoded subsequent portion of the media stream to the end-user device. Other embodiments are also described.

Abstract: In accordance with the invention, embodiments of a DNS server, a DNS proxy process, and an intermediate server (IMS) are described. The DNS server, DNS proxy process, and intermediate server (IMS) described herein utilize a source IP address for a client device, in combination with a destination IP address for a host server, in reverse mapping operations in order to accurately provide a hostname originally requested by the client device.

Abstract: A method, apparatus and computer program are provided for controlling access to content in a network 400 comprising a user equipment (UE) 402 and servers 406, 434. The UE 402 comprises an application module configured to process executable code using data retrieved from a first server 406. A request message 436 comprising first data identifying the first server 406 associated with the application module and second data indicative of a request for content from a second server 434 received from the application module 428 is analysed so as to determine an access permission. The access permission is based on an attribute of the second server 434 satisfying a predetermined criterion with respect to the first server 406. An access control parameter is selectively included in a response message 442, 448 in dependence on the access permission to provide permission to access retrieved content included in the response message 442.

Abstract: A system and method for intercepting and storing information relating to communications with at least one device over a network are described. The system comprises: an interceptor configured to intercept at least some communications with the at least one device over a network; and a processing system. The processing system processes each intercepted communication to determine the type of content which is referenced by the intercepted communication. A storage action of a first type may be performed if the determined type of content satisfies a criterion or a storage action of a second type different to said first type may be performed if the determined type of content does not satisfy said criterion. This enables more information to be stored about content types most useful for later analysis (for example page impressions) than for content types less useful for later analysis (for example images and other content types which are not page impressions).

Abstract: A system and method for managing transactional data in a mobile communication network utilizes selectively sampling of a portion of data of transactions to and from mobile communication devices of the mobile communication network. An extract, transform and load process is then performed one the sampled data of the transactions and the resulting data is stored in a warehouse database, which can be used for analytics reporting.

Abstract: Methods, apparatus and computer programs are provided for determining header data for and based on a plurality of messages. Each message comprises header data having a plurality of fields each of which has a value. A first message is received and data indicative of at least some of the header data of the first message is stored. A second message is received and a value for at least one given field associated with header data for the second message is determined based at least on the stored data and the header data of the second message. The determined value is other than a value of the given field of the second message.

Abstract: A database compression system includes and analyzer, a counting engine, and a mapping engine. The analyzer analyzes a schema of a database by maintaining a list of attributes and corresponding values. The analyzer also analyzes a selection of entries in the database. The counting engine determines a frequency of occurrence of each attribute/value pair in the selection of entries. The mapping engine assigns a condensed code to a character string determined on the basis of the attribute/value pair with a highest frequency of occurrence.

Abstract: A network device transparently intercepts HTTP transmissions between a user device and a web server. The network device stores user preference information, which allows the intermediate network device to apply the user preference information to retrieved content that is directed to the user's mobile device.