Gaming server providing on demand quality of service
View Patent ↗The present invention teaches methods and systems for providing a gaming server system (Gaming System) for enabling a quality-of-service on-demand (QoS) broadcast system to provide a gaming computer or game console with premium levels of quality-of-service. The gaming server provides premium network connection service levels based upon customer profile, current activity, account status or other criteria.
1. A method for providing enhanced quality-of-service to an online gaming user comprising:
connecting a game console to a gaming web server via a gaming network;
selecting a game from the gaming web server;
transmitting the game selection to a gaming agent;
matching the game selection to a set of quality-of-service parameters determined by the gaming agent from the game selection without further input from the online gaming user;
providing service over the gaming network to the game console in accordance with the quality-of-service parameters determined from the game selection by the gaming agent.
2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
transmitting a request from the gaming agent to a quality-of-service controller, wherein the quality of service controller comprises instructions for managing network resources associated with the gaming network;
polling the gaming network from the quality-of-service controller to determine whether the network resources are available to grant the request; and,
reserving the network resources are available to grant the request when the quality-of-service controller determines that the network resources are available to grant the request.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the game console comprises a personal computer.
4. The method of claim 1 further comprising transmitting gaming user authentication information to the gaming web server from the game console.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the gaming web server restricts online gaming to authenticated gaming users.
6. The method of claim 4 , further comprising transmitting gaming user authentication information to the gaming agent from the gaming web server.
7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the gaming agent restricts enhanced quality-of-service-game to authenticated gaming users.
8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
recording the time duration of enhanced quality-of-service game provisioning; and
charging a time-duration based fee for enhanced quality-of-service.
9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the time-duration based fee is charged for the time that enhanced quality-of-service is active.
10. The method of claim 2 , further comprising recording the time duration of enhanced quality-of-service game provisioning and charging the gaming user a time-duration based fee for enhanced quality-of-service, wherein the time-duration based fee is charged for the time that enhanced quality-of-service is reserved.
11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the available quality-of-service parameters are selected from a database of desired gaming quality-of-service parameters indexed to a game identifier.
12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the available quality-of-service parameters are selected from a database of desired gaming quality-of-service parameters indexed to a class-of-game identifier.
13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the gaming agent receives data from the gaming web server and transmits data to the gaming web server over a secure communications network.
14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the secure communications network is a data encrypted communications network.
15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the gaming agent is integrated with the gaming web server.
16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the gaming agent further comprises parental controls.
17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the enhanced quality-of-service request further comprises an upstream enhanced quality-of-service request and a downstream enhanced quality-of-service request.
18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the gaming agent matches the upstream enhanced quality-of-service request and the downstream enhanced quality-of-service request by referring to a database comprising fields for game identification, upstream quality-of-service fields and downstream quality-of-service fields.
19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the upstream quality-of-service fields are selected from the group consisting of a poll-interval, a poll-jitter, a minimum-rate, a maximum-rate, a maximum-burst, a maximum-concatenation-burst, a request-transmission-policy, an activity-timeout, an admission-timeout, a schedule-type and a TOS-overwrite.
20. The method of claim 18 , wherein the downstream quality-of-service fields are selected from the group consisting of a priority, a minimum-rate, a maximum-rate, a maximum-burst, an activity-timeout and an admission-timeout.
21. The method of claim 1 , wherein the gaming network comprises a carrier network component.
22. The method of claim 1 , wherein the gaming network comprises a carrier network component and the Internet.
23. The method of claim 1 , wherein the carrier network component is selected from the group consisting of a wireless network, a wired network component, and a fiber network component.
24. A system for providing enhanced quality-of-service to an online gaming user comprising:
a game console connected to a gaming network;
a gaming web server connected to the gaming network so as to receive a gaming user selection for a game available for the game console; and
a gaming agent comprising instructions for:
receiving the selected game selection transmitted from the gaming web server; and
matching the game selection to a set of quality-of-service parameters determined by the gaming agent from the game selection without further input from the online gaming user,
wherein the gaming web-server comprises instructions for providing game data to the game console over the gaming network using the quality-of-service network resources.
25. The system of claim 24 further comprising a quality-of-service controller, wherein the gaming agent further comprises instructions for transmitting a request from the gaming agent to the quality-of-service controller and wherein the quality of service controller comprises instructions for:
managing network resources associated with the gaming network:
polling the gaming network to determine whether the network resources are available to grant the request; and
reserving the network resources when the quality-of-service controller determines that the network resources are available to grant the request.
26. The system of claim 24 , wherein the game console comprises instructions for transmitting gaming user authentication information to the gaming web server.
27. The system of claim 26 , wherein the gaming web server comprises instructions for restricting online gaming to authenticated gaming users.
28. The system of claim 26 , wherein the gaming web server further comprises instructions for transmitting gaming user authentication information to the gaming agent.
29. The system of claim 28 , wherein the gaming agent further comprises instructions for restricting enhanced quality-of-service-game to authenticated gaming users.
30. The system of claim 24 , wherein the gaming agent further comprises instructions for recording the time duration of enhanced quality-of-service game provisioning and wherein the system further comprises a billing system adapted to charge the gaming user a time-duration based fee for enhanced quality-of-service.
31. The system of claim 30 , wherein the time-duration based fee is charged for the time that enhanced quality-of-service is active.
32. The system of claim 25 , wherein the gaming agent further comprises instructions for recording the time duration of enhanced quality-of-service game provisioning, wherein the system further comprises a billing system adapted to charge the gaming user a time-duration based fee for enhanced quality-of-service and wherein the time-duration based fee is charged for the time that enhanced quality-of-service is reserved.
33. The system of claim 24 , wherein the available quality-of-service parameters are selected from a database of desired gaming quality-of-service parameters indexed to a game identifier.
34. The system of claim 24 , wherein the gaming agent further comprises instructions for selecting the available quality-of-service parameters from a database of desired gaming quality-of-service parameters indexed to a class-of-game identifier.
35. The system of claim 24 , wherein the gaming agent is integrated with the gaming web server.
36. The system of claim 24 , wherein the enhanced quality-of-service request further comprises an upstream enhanced quality-of-service request and a downstream enhanced quality-of-service request.
37. The system of claim 36 , wherein the gaming agent matches the upstream enhanced quality-of-service request and the downstream enhanced quality-of-service request by referring to a database comprising fields for game identification, upstream quality-of-service fields and downstream quality-of-service fields.
38. The system of claim 37 , wherein the upstream quality-of-service fields are selected from the group consisting of a poll-interval, a poll-jitter, a minimum-rate, a maximum-rate, a maximum-burst, a maximum-concatenation-burst, a request-transmission-policy, an activity-timeout, an admission-timeout, a schedule-type and a TOS-overwrite.
39. The system of claim 38 , wherein the downstream quality-of-service fields are selected from the group consisting of a priority, a minimum-rate, a maximum-rate, a maximum-burst, an activity-timeout and an admission-timeout.
40. The system of claim 24 , wherein the gaming network comprises a carrier network component.
41. The system of claim 24 , wherein the gaming network comprises a carrier network component and the Internet.
42. The system of claim 24 , wherein the carrier network component is selected from the group consisting of a wireless network, a wired network component, and a fiber network component.