DISTRIBUTION AND DISPLAY OF ADVERTISING FOR DEVICES IN A NETWORK

摘要

A system and associated apparatus and methods for the distribution, selection and display of advertising content for devices operating in A system and associated apparatus and methods for the distribution, selection and display of advertising content for devices operating in a network. The devices need not initiate a point-to-point communication with an ad server to provide the ability to filter received advertising content and enable the display of advertisements that are targeted to a device's user. The invention enables a service provider or network operator to control the policy used to specify the selection, timing, and display of an advertisement stored in a cache of a client device. A modification to the policy can be broadcast and implemented in real-time by the device. Advertisements stored in the cache may be filtered both by the service provider or network operator and by the device itself so as to provide the best selection of ads tailored to the user of the device. The device implements cache management processes to determine how best to maintain the advertisements of greatest relevance to the user of the device. The invention also provides mechanisms for the reporting of statistics that can be used for billing purposes and to better filter the selection of advertisements cached at each device.