James D Mcnabb

US Patent:

7680912, Mar 16, 2010

Filed:

Jul 27, 2001

Appl. No.:

09/915287

Inventors:

James McNabb - Reston VA, US
Ben Battle - Chantilly VA, US

Assignee:

thePlatform, Inc. - Philadelphia PA

International Classification:

G06F 15/173
G06F 15/16

US Classification:

709223, 709231

Abstract:

A system and method for managing and provisioning streamed data by controlling, measuring and monitoring access to multicasted and/or unicasted data over a network includes a director, a hierarchy of participant managers, and a turnstile installed at each participant to which the data is to be delivered. Content providers provide information associated with an event (i. e. , data) to the director. The director oversees the delivery of the event to a participant. In particular, the director provisions network resources and provides a ticket to the event to the participant. The participant acquires the ticket, either directly or indirectly from the director. When the participant attempts to access the event, the locally installed turnstile authenticates the ticket thereby gating access to the event. The turnstile also provides delivery statistics associated with the delivery of the event to the director via the hierarchy of participant managers.