| 摘要 |
A content delivery method employing a plurality of transient device-to-device, D2D, links among User Equipments, UEs, (10, 12, 14, 16) in the vicinity of a content-seeking UE (11) and which locally cache desired content. To obtain the desired content, successive D2D links are initiated by the content-seeking UE (11) with initial guidance from a central Femto network controller (50). The central Femto network controller (50) identifies possible D2D content donor UEs in the vicinity of the content-seeking UE (11) and indicates a probability of successfully obtaining the content through UE-orchestrated content delivery using multiple D2D links. A user then decides whether to attempt UE-orchestrated content delivery or whether to obtain the content in another way, for example directly from a root server through the core network. Requested content may be divided into a plurality of segments, wherein at least one segment is obtained from each of the D2D links. Addresses the problem with public access small cell networks wherein users are highly mobile and D2D links may be transient in nature and therefore a single D2D links will not be sufficient to deliver large file size content such as HD video. |
