Method and system for optimizing communication in a home network via a gateway

Abstract

A method and system are provided in which a content request may be received by a broadband gateway from a device connected to the broadband gateway through a home network. The broadband gateway may select content that corresponds to the request from content that is available through a network access service provider and/or from other devices in the home network. The selection of the content corresponding to the request may be based on capability information of the device. The selection may be based a bandwidth to transfer the content within the home network to process the content.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method, comprising:
 receiving, in a broadband gateway, capability information corresponding to a particular device of a plurality of devices, the broadband gateway configured to enable communication with the plurality of devices in a local network and to handle at least one connection to at least one network access service provider;   receiving, by the broadband gateway, a request for content from the particular device;   selecting, by the broadband gateway and based at least in part on the received capability information and version characteristics, a version of the content from a plurality of content versions that correspond to the received request and are available from the at least one corresponding network access service provider, wherein the version is one of the plurality of versions of the content, wherein the version characteristics are respectively associated with the versions, wherein selecting the version of the video content is based at least in part on a bandwidth to transfer the content within the home network;   receiving, by the broadband gateway, the selected version of the content from the access server provider; and   forwarding, by the broadband gateway, the selected version to the particular device.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein capability information for the particular device indicates a decoding capability for the particular device. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the selected version of the content comprises a video format for a preview channel. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein selecting the version of the content is further based at least in part on a bandwidth being consumed by at least one of the plurality of devices. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein selecting the version of the video content is further based at least in part on an amount of power that is expected to be consumed by the particular device to process at least one of the plurality of content versions. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the capability information corresponding to the particular device indicates a storage capability for the particular device. 
     
     
         7 . A system, comprising:
 a broadband gateway configured to enable communication with a plurality of devices and to handle at least one connection to at least one network access service provider, the broadband gateway comprising at least one processor, at least one circuit, or any combination thereof configured to:
 receive capability information corresponding to a particular device of the plurality of devices; 
 receive a request for video content from the particular device; 
 select, based at least in part on the received capability information, a version of the video content from a plurality of content versions that correspond to the request and are available through the at least one corresponding network access service provider, wherein the selected version is selected based at least in part on an optimization and a version characteristic, the optimization being based at least in part upon a bandwidth to transfer the video content in a home network associated with the devices and the broadband gateway, wherein the version is one of plurality of versions of the content, wherein the version characteristics are respectively associated with the versions, wherein selecting the version of the video content is further based at least in part on an amount of bandwidth being consumed by the home network; and 
 receive the selected version of the content from the at least one corresponding network access service provider. 
   
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 7 , wherein the at least one processor, at least one circuit, or any combination thereof is configured to provide another selected version from the at least one of the devices to the broadband gateway and forwarded from the broadband gateway to the particular device via the home network without an intervening. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 7 , wherein the at least one processor, the at least one circuit, or any combination thereof is configured to:
 provide the selected version of the content to another device of the plurality of devices for processing via the home network;   receive a processed version of the selected version of the content from the other device via the home network; and   forward the processed version of the selected version of the content to the particular device via the home network.   
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein the processing comprises at least one of transcoding, a rate conversion, or a size conversion from the selected version to the processed version. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 7 , wherein the capability information for the particular device indicates a display capability for the particular device. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 7 , wherein the capability information for the particular device indicates an audio capability for the particular device. 
     
     
         13 . A method, comprising:
 receiving, by a broadband gateway, capability information corresponding to a particular device of a plurality of devices;   receiving, by the broadband gateway, a request for content from the particular device;   selecting, based at least in part on the received capability information and a bandwidth available on the home network associated with the devices and the broad band gateway, a version of the content from a plurality of content versions available from a content provider or from at least one of the devices; and   receiving, by the broadband gateway, the selected version of the content.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the selected version of the content comprises a video format of a plurality of video formats for same video content, the same video content being a movie, the video formats comprising high definition and standard definition. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein selecting the version of the video content is further based at least in part on an amount of power that is expected to be consumed by the particular device to process at least one of the plurality of content versions. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the capability information for the device indicates at least one of an audio capability, a display capability, a decoding capability, or a storage capability for the device. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the devices are each connected without an intervening gateway to the broadband gateway, and wherein the version of the video content is selected based at least in part on an amount of power that is expected to be consumed by the particular device to process at least one of the plurality of content versions. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 13 , further comprising: forwarding the selected version of the content to the particular device, wherein the broadband gateway is directly connected to the devices via a home network connection interface. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 13 , further comprising:
 providing the selected version of the content to another device of the devices via the home network for processing;   receiving a processed version of the selected version of the content from the another device; and   forwarding the processed version of the selected version of the content to a further device.   
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19 , wherein the processing comprises at least one of a transcoding, a rate conversion, or a size conversion from the selected version to the processed version.