WO2009087549A2

WO2009087549A2 - Multimedia content prefetching engine

Info

Publication number: WO2009087549A2
Application number: PCT/IB2008/055681
Authority: WO
Inventors: Shishir Garg; Frederick Lee
Original assignee: France Telecom
Priority date: 2007-12-31
Filing date: 2008-12-17
Publication date: 2009-07-16
Also published as: WO2009087549A3

Abstract

In an operator network comprising a plurality of geographically distributed local networks and a plurality of subscribers, a method to prefetch multimedia content and render said multimedia content available to said plurality of subscribers, said method comprising for at least one local network the acts of identifying the local network active subscribers, an active subscriber being a subscriber who consumes multimedia content, each active subscriber being characterized by at least one of a consumption history and subscriber demographic information, said active subscribers from the local network forming a community, building a community profile based on at least one of said active subscribers consumption histories and demographic information, prefetching multimedia content based on the community profile, transmitting the prefetched multimedia content to a limited number of active subscribers in the local network so as to render said content available within said local network for a subsequent distribution to active subscribers requesting such multimedia content.

Description

MULTIMEDIA CONTENT PREFETCHING ENGINE

FIELD OF THE PRESENT INVENTION: The present invention generally relates to computer networks and more specifically to multimedia content prefetching within an operator network.

BACKGROUND OF THE PRESENT INVENTION:

Today there is an explosion of multimedia content accessible through the Internet. Subscribers - or clients - of an operator network or internet provider may find this content either within the network or from the outside through gateways to the world wide web.

Regardless the content size, clients desire high bandwidth and low latency whenever they are streaming media content or downloading on their computers multimedia files. As the network becomes congested, clients may lose their patience and be tempted to cancel their current subscriptions the offer for content is extensive nowadays. One way to maintain the client base for an operator network is to ensure a high availability of the content, even when the network tends to be congested.

Caching may be one remedy. Content that has been accessed or viewed by one client may be stored in caching servers within the network for further access by other clients so as to reduce the latency.

Another solution is the prefetching of the multimedia content, based on the present and past content requested by clients, in order to foresee what these clients may be interested into in the future. Through the tracking of multimedia consumptions, contents of interest to the clients are predicted and fetched by network servers ahead of time, for example at times when the network is less congested.

While caching is related to keeping a copy of the consumed content, prefetching is focused on guessing the client needs. An example of a prefetching method is known from US 7,130,890. This document teaches a plurality of prefetch algorithms that allows to selectively prefetch content within a network based on the monitoring of a proxy server. If the need for multimedia content may be finely predicted, the prefetched content is rendered available at the network level. In a large operator network, the prefetched content may be still be physically distant from potentially interested clients, who will still face low latency when the network is congested. As latency remains a problem,

There is still a need today for an improved prefetching method that does not leave the clients with the same latency and bandwidth problems that already exist for the known solutions.

SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT METHOD AND SYSTEM:

It is an object of the present method and system to overcome disadvantages and/or make improvements in the prior art. To that extend, in an operator network comprising a plurality of geographically distributed local networks and a plurality of subscribers, the present method proposes a method to prefetch content and render said multimedia content available to said plurality of subscribers, said method comprising for at least one local network the acts of:

- identifying the local network subscribers, a local network subscriber being enabled to consume multimedia content through said local network, each subscriber being characterized by at least one of a multimedia content consumption history and subscriber demographic information, said subscribers from the local network forming a community,

- building a community profile based on at least one of said subscribers consumption histories and demographic information, - prefetching multimedia content based on the community profile,

- transmitting the pref etched multimedia content to a limited number of subscribers in the local network so as to render said content available within said local network for a subsequent distribution to subscribers requesting such multimedia content.

The present method stems from the Applicant's observation that a local network presents two characteristics:

- as the clients of the operator network all live in the same neighborhood, they are likely to present some similarities in terms of tastes, behaviors, beliefs, ... and consequently in terms of multimedia consumption,

- rendering the prefetched multimedia available at a local level, within a geographically limited region or neighborhood, the latency is considerably reduced. The proximity of all subscribers to the content will make all transfer fast and efficient. In an additional embodiment, the subscribers are active subscribers, i.e. subscribers who consume multimedia content. The active subscribers selected as recipients for the prefetched multimedia content may be seen as super nodes of the present system. The distribution of the prefetched content, in an additional embodiment of the present method, may be through a peer to peer (P2P) solution between the active clients.

The present method may be carried out for all local networks, on a local network per local network basis, or for some selected local networks, wherein e.g. the community is very active in terms of multimedia consumption.

The present system recites, in an operator network comprising a plurality of geographically distributed local networks and a plurality of subscribers, a system to prefetch multimedia content and render said multimedia content available to said plurality of subscribers, said system comprising a prefetching engine being arranged for at least one local network to:

- identify the local network subscribers, a subscriber being enabled to consume multimedia content through said local network, each subscriber being characterized by at least one of a consumption history and subscriber demographic information, said subscribers from the local network forming a community,

- build a community profile based on at least one of said subscribers consumption histories and demographic information, - prefetch multimedia content based on the community profile,

- transmit the prefetched multimedia content to a limited number of subscribers in the local network so as to render said content available within said local network for a subsequent distribution to subscribers requesting such multimedia content.

A prefetching engine is also proposed and recites, in an operator network comprising a plurality of geographically distributed local networks and a plurality of subscribers, a prefetching engine to prefetch multimedia content and render said multimedia content available to said plurality of subscribers, said prefetching engine being arranged for at least one local network to:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS:

The present system and method are explained in further detail, and by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 shows an exemplary embodiment of the present system,

FIG. 2 shows a exemplary flow diagram in accordance with an embodiment of the present method,

FIG. 3 shows an exemplary detailed diagram of the identifying act of the users in a local network, in accordance with an embodiment of the present method, and:

FIG. 4 shows a exemplary flow diagram of the media service according to with an embodiment of the present method.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS:

The following are descriptions of exemplary embodiments that when taken in conjunction with the drawings will demonstrate the above noted features and advantages, and introduce further ones. In the following description, for purposes of explanation rather than limitation, specific details are set forth such as architecture, interfaces, techniques, etc., for illustration. However, it will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that other embodiments that depart from these details would still be understood to be within the scope of the appended claims. For example, the invention allows an improved prefetching of multimedia content based on a community profiling. The man skilled in the art will notice that this is not the sole embodiment possible, and that the present system and method may be implemented other content such as web based content, web addresses, ... Other embodiments are readily available to the man skilled in the art.

Moreover, for the purpose of clarity, detailed descriptions of well-known devices, systems, and methods are omitted so as not to obscure the description of the present system. In addition, it should be expressly understood that the drawings are included for illustrative purposes and do not represent the scope of the present system.

By multimedia content, one may understand content that it may be perceived by at least one sense of a user experiencing said content, such as a sense of sight and/or a sense of hearing. The content may include audio content, video content, audio/visual content, image content, textual content, and/or other content that may be rendered to a user. Whenever a media content is rendered to a user, it may be qualified as consumed by said user.

One of the advantages of digital content is an ability to carry additional information in a content stream that in an analog arena, was almost exclusively utilized for providing the analog content. For example, semantic tags may be embedded (ID3 for digital audio, Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL), etc.) into digital content enabling content creators to provide auxiliary information for a particular piece of content. For example, for digital audio/visual content, a user may be enabled to access supplemental content that is transmitted directly with the content and/or may be enabled to access supplemental content that is available from another content source utilizing meta-data that is associated with the digital audio/visual content. The meta data generally comprises information on the content itself, e.g. its title, artist, album name, director (for a movie), duration, bit per minute, genre ... The meta data may also include additional information such as statistics, contextual information about the creation o f the content (shooting o f a movie, writing of a song, ... ).

When subscribing online to multimedia stores such as Itunes™, Blockbuster Videos™, ... subscribers are often invited to define their preferences in terms of media content they like to consume. This information is then reused by the stores to push better targeted content or promotional adds to the subscribers. Experience shows that most subscribers do not fill in the preferences or provide irrelevant answers.

In the present system, the multimedia content is pulled from multimedia databases based on a profiling of a community of clients within an operator network.

FIG. 1 shows an illustration according to exemplary embodiment of the present system. An operator's network is illustrated. The operator's network may be seen as all the infrastructure in control of an operator, and that provides to subscribers to the operator communication services (voice - wireless or not, internet, TV, ...). An operator may also be referred to as a telecommunication operator, cable and wireless operator. With the convergence of most data services today, most operators tend to offer at least two, if not all, data services. Internet service providers (ISP) may also be seen as operators here after as they provide services similar to operators'. Through the operator's network, subscribers i.e. users may enjoy services like telephony (mobile or not), internet and media (TV, video, music, ...). One of more gateways (not shown in FIG. 1) are provided to allow the subscribers to the operator network to access services hosted by distant nodes, like websites, media stores 150, ... The operator network may also comprise its own multimedia stores, illustrated in FIG. 1 as a media library. The operator network further comprises a plurality of geographically distributed local networks 130. A local network is a computer network covering a small geographic area, like an office building, a group of buildings, a city neighborhood, ... The defining characteristics of local network, in contrast to operator network, include their much higher data transfer rates thanks to the smaller geographic range. An example of a local network is a Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM) that allows users to make faster connections to the Internet. It is a network device, located near the users' locations, that connects multiple user Digital Subscriber Lines (DSLs) to a high-speed Internet infrastructure using multiplexing techniques. By locating DSLAMs at locations remote to the switches of operator core network 155, operators are now providing DSL services to consumers who could not previously access the internet due to their distance from network switches. Users generally connect to their DSLAM through ADSL (Asynchronous DSL) modems which in turn connects them into the network backbone.

The present system and method will be illustrated here after with the example of a DSLAM but the man skilled in the art will readily apply these teaching to any geographically local networks. The DSLAM 130 comprises a plurality of users, or multimedia content consumers 135.

Each user may access through the operator network the distant multimedia libraries 150 and 151, either directly or through web applications. All the users of a same DSLAM may be seen as peers to the same local network.

In order to render multimedia content available locally, i.e. at the DSLAM level, for users, the present system further comprises a media core router 110. The media core router may be a network router or server a user may log on to subscribe to multimedia services, including a prefetching service that corresponds to the present method. The subscription may be performed through a web application for example.

The media core router (MCR) 110 is arranged to:

- provide a unique identification (ID) to all users once they have subscribed to the prefetching service, like a Global Unique ID (GUID). With that GUID, a subscriber may identify himself/herself each time he/she logs back on to MCR 110, A GUID is a specific identifier used in software applications in order to provide a reference number which is unique in any context. The unique ID may also be based on the Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) standard. Other techniques are readily available to the man skilled in the art for generating a unique ID for a user of the present system,

- receive from the user, whenever said user logs on, his/her IP address along with his/her GUID,

- receive (and store) information from a logged user on what multimedia content this logged user is watching or listening to, as well as the moment of the day. This information may be useful for the other users as the content may be rendered available over the whole DSLAM through a peer to peer (P2P) sharing of the content, When consuming multimedia content, a user becomes what is called here after an active subscriber. The MCR 110 will track the active subscriber consumption history,

- receive a user request for retrieving multimedia content. In return, the MCR will return a list of servers and/or peers wherein this content may be found as explained later on in relation to

FIG. 4.

The information exchanged between the users and MCR 110 may be enabled through an client software the user would download to his/her device when subscribing to the multimedia service. The collection of the information allows the present system to profile the community of users.

When subscribing to the service, a user may provide a plurality of information about himself/herself, here after called demographic information. This information may comprise user personal data such as e.g. name, age, address, fixed telephone, date of birth, profession, personal email address. This information may also include, when provided, the multimedia genre he/she likes, the sources of interests, his preferences in term of multimedia content. This demographic information may also be used in profiling the community he/she belongs to.

The present system further comprises a media prefetch engine (MPE) 100 which may be hosted by a server of the operator network. The MPE 100 may be a software application arranged to: - identify the DSLAM subscribers. As mentioned before, these subscribers from the same DSLAM form a community of subscribers,

- build a community profile based on at least one of said subscribers consumption histories and demographic information,

- prefetch multimedia content based on the built community profile, - transmit the prefetched multimedia content to a limited number of subscribers in the

DSLAM so as to render said content available within DSLAM for a subsequent distribution to subscribers requesting such multimedia content.

In an additional implementation of the present method, only the active subscribers, i.e. who are consuming multimedia, are used to build the community profile. The present method will be further detailed in relation to FIG. 2 here after. In a preliminary act 200, a user from a DSLAM registers with, i.e. subscribes to, the multimedia service corresponding to the present method. He/she receives a unique identifier GUID from the MCR 110 of FIG. 1. While subscribing (or later on during a subsequent access to the MCR 110), this user provides his/her demographic information. This information may be used in the profiling of the community. The user may also download on his/her device (through which he/she will access to the multimedia content) a software as mentioned before, to inform the MCR with his media content consumption.

Once users have subscribed, a periodic identification of the DSLAM users may be performed by the media pref etching engine 100 in a further act 210. In one exemplary embodiment of the present method, in order to avoid traffic congestion, the prefetch of multimedia content may be scheduled at the least significant traffic cycle. For that matter, on a scheduled time line, MCR provides aggregated IP list to MPE. This act will be detailed here after in relation to FIG. 3.

The users in a community may vary constantly. As the MCR 110 keeps the consumption history of the users, the identification of the DSLAM users may be limited, in an additional embodiment, to the active users, i.e. users of the operator network who have subscribed to the multimedia service, and have consumed content over a given period of time. Some subscribers who are only known through their demographic information, as they have yet to consume multimedia content after registration with the multimedia service. It might not be interesting to influence the community profile with their preferences, as these preferences may not reflect their actual tastes.

In an alternative embodiment, it may be interesting to identify all network users from the DSLAM, even the ones who have not registered or not consumed multimedia content using the present service. The profiling of the whole DSLAM community then may be carried out using the operator's logs that keep a record of all the DSLAM internet access. In a further act 220, a profiling of the community is carried out by the MPE 100. The profiling may be based on data mining techniques (sorting through large amounts of data to pick out the relevant information) to analyze the information available on the identified users. The information available on the users may b e at least one of:

- his/her consumption history of media content, as tracked by the MCR 110 through the software client on the user's device. The media content consumption may include the meta data available for each content consumed,

- his/her demographic data as defined before,

- more generally his/her internet consumption. If this large source of information is used, data mining techniques may help in sort the multimedia related information from the operator's logs.

The MPE 100 may collect the information directly from the MCR 110 for the subscribers of the local network under consideration.

Different profiling techniques may be readily available to the man skilled in the art to build a community profile. This community profile may consist for example of genres of movies or music that is much consumed by the users from the DSLAM, like sports, action, romance, blockbusters, ... The profiling may use the metadata of the media content consumed within the DSLAM and look for commonalities between the meta data, like recurring genres of movies, actors, directors, themes, year of release, if the movie that a success or not, ... For music content, the genre, rhythm, composers, singers, lyrics authors, release year, country, ... may also be analyzed. One possible way to profile the community is to select the recurring elements from the metadata of the consumed media content and built there from a community profile. Categories may be listed such as e.g.: Movie Categories Action & Adventures

Action Comedy Action Thriller

Adventure Drama

Animation

Comedy Comedy Drama

Comedy Thriller Dark Humor

Documentary Art

History Biography

Drama Family & Kids

Foreign

Horror

Music & Performing Arts

Sci-Fi The media content may also be sorted by "Collections": Top 100 popular movies Award Winners Blu-Ray DVD HD DVD

New Releases Classics Film Festival Holiday Latino

The profiling act may be carried out periodically, either on a regular basis or once a given number of new subscribers have registered with the present service. In an additional embodiment of the present method, in order to keep the profiling as up to date as possible, only the most recent (i.e. over a given period of time prior to the profiling) users information may be analyzed to build the community profile.

Once a community profile is build, in a further act 230, the MPE 100 accesses different multimedia content libraries, either within the operator network 151 or outside said operator network 150 to identify and retrieve media content matching the community profile. This may be carried out by comparing the characteristics of the community profile with the metadata of the media content in the libraries or any relevant classification system used in said libraries.

The prefetching of content may be also periodic, each time the profile is updated or on a different period then the building of this profile. The prefetching to the content, as it may represent a large volume requiring a significant network bandwidth, may be carried out at times when the network is less congested. Monitoring the network congestion may be a good indication on when to perform the transferring to the identified media content from the libraries to the DSLAM. Once the content has been identified, it may be transferred to directly to the DSLAM or transferred first to the MPE 100 for a subsequent distribution to the DLSAM.

In an additional act 240, the prefetched content is distributed to the DSLAM thanks to the MPE 100. The content is pushed to specific subscribers identified as super nodes 136 (as seen in FIG. 1), acting as recipients for the prefetch content in the DSLAM community. These super nodes help render the prefetched content available at the community level for faster access by the other users from the community, as the DSLAM is geographically limited in sized. The super nodes may be identified by the MPE through their media consumption history and/or their demographic information if it includes their storage capacity and their internet connection speed (depending e.g. on their level of subscription with the operator). The consumption information as well as the demographic information may be collected as before by the MPE from the MCR. For instance users showing a significant media content consumption or storage and connection speed may be selected as super nodes.

In an additional embodiment of the present method, in order to equally distribute the prefetched content over the community, the super nodes are further selected based on their location within the DSLAM. The MPE is then operable to map the DSLAM through network topology technique, and select the super nodes based on said DSLAM topology.

The distribution may also be influenced by the rights attached to the prefetched content. The number of authorized copies may be limited for instance. One solution may be to split one same content over several super nodes, the MPE keeping a record of the distribution.

In order to keep track of where the content is available, the MPE also informs the MCR of the super nodes 136 identity (through e.g. their GUID), along with the media content that has been pushed to them. Thanks to this information, any subscribers 135 knows either from the

MCR or the MPE what and where a given content is located. The content may then be shared through the users through a P2P sharing. When the content has been pushed to several super nodes within the same DSLAM, or copies from a first recipient are sent to other super nodes, the MCR may inform the user which super nodes is the closest to him/her (based on the network topology) in order to minimize the sharing.

The identification of the users may be carried out in the exemplary embodiment illustrated in FIG. 3. This identification of users may be for instance performed by the MCR 110 upon a request from the MPE or directly by the MPE. In the latter case, the MPE may collects the necessary information on the users from the MCR 110. The identification allows to identify the users the prefetched multimedia content will be distributed to. In a preliminary act 300, the subscribers of the operator network are identified. The identification may be carried out for: - the users who have registered with the service according to the present method,

- the active users, i.e. the users who are identified as consuming multimedia content, - the users from the operator network.

For the first two categories of users, the identification may be operated through the MCR the users have registered with, the active users being identified based on the information that is sent from the registered users to the MCR. In a further act 310, the IP (internet protocol) addresses for the identified users are collected. The IP addresses, either static or dynamic, are attributed by the operator, e.g. by one (or more) Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) node 160 accessible through the core network 155 as seen on FIG. 1.

From the IP addresses, in an additional act 320, the DHCP IP range is requested. The IP address range gives an indication of the local network an IP address belongs to. For example, using the IPv4 (version 4 of the Internet Protocol), the most commonly used standard for IP addresses, IPv4, the most common form of IP address is coded using 32-bit values, usually represented in dotted-decimal notation. An IP address, for example 82.231.43.142, is given through a series of four numbers a.b.c.d, a, b, c and d being integers ranging from 0 to 255, separated by dots. The largest networks correspond to the first integer a, sub-networks of a large network are identified through the first two numbers a.b, the sub-networks being partitioned in smaller networks identified by the first three numbers a.b.c. A local network, depending on the scale of the local network, may correspond to either the first, first two or first three integers. The DHCP range of an IP address may be provided by the DHCP server 160. From the

IP range of said IP address, the local network may be identified in a further act 330.

Thanks to acts 300 to 330, a list of the users and the local network they belong to is built. From that list can be deducted for each local network its list of users which forms the basis for the community. FIG. 4 illustrates the different acts a user may perform when using the present service. In a preliminary act 400, a user from the operator network may register with the MCR 110 of FIG. 1 so that:

- his/her media consumption may be monitored in order to build the DSLAM community profile, - he/she has access to the multimedia content that is available within the local network.

In a further act 410, as mentioned before, the registration will help collection the media content consumption of the registered user through e.g. the software downloaded after registration with the MCR.

In a further act 420, the user may access a catalog of media content available for consumption. The access may be realized through a web application available on a service node of the operator network. The service node may be:

- the MCR 110 of FIG. 1, which receives information from the MPE 100 of FIG. 1 each time media content is prefetched to a local network,

- the MPE 100 of FIG. 1, which keeps a record of the prefetched media content and to which DSLAM is has been distributed, - or any other node that has access to the pref etching information from the MPE 100.

The user may visualized through a personal device like a computer, a mobile equipment or the likes the media catalog that will comprise the prefetched media content and other content available from the media libraries 150 and 151 in FIG.l.

Once a media content has been selected by the user, in a further act 430, the media content is accessed from the user's device for rendering of said media content. The rendering may be performed through the user's device he/she accessed the catalog with or through another rendering device accessible through his/her home network. The media content may be either available:

- locally within the DSLAM if it is part of the prefetched media content. It may be retrieved through a peer to peer sharing, as the user has access through the service node to who is the user node in his/her local network the selected media content has been pushed to. The P2P sharing may be triggered automatically by the service node, or

- on the distant libraries 150 and 151 only. In this latter case, the media is retrieved through a known retrieval methods such as streaming or downloading. If downloaded, it may be forwarded to one or more of the super nodes, to render the content available locally. As this locally unavailable content is tracked through the consumption of the user who selected it, the content will be taken into account in the next update of the community profile.

In the event the same content has been split between several super nodes, both MPE and the MCR may keep a record of the splitting. When selecting such a content, the user will be informed of the different super nodes where from he/she may retrieve the content.

Thanks to the present system, users of a local network never have to leave their local network in order to consume media content, as the content has either been prefetched or is fetched and transferred locally. A suitable content is brought to the local network of a user, which reduces the need in bandwidth and facilitate the access to said content.

Obviously, readily discernible modifications and variations of the present system are possible in light of the above teachings. It is therefore to be understood that within the scope of the appended claims, the present invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described herein. For example, while described in terms of hardware/software components interactively cooperating, it is contemplated that the invention described herein may be practiced entirely in software. The software may be embodied in a carrier such as magnetic or optical disks, or a radio frequency or audio frequency carrier wave.

Thus, the foregoing discussion discloses and describes merely exemplary embodiments of the present invention. As will be understood by those skilled in the art, the present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof. Accordingly, the disclosure of the present invention is intended to be illustrative, but not limiting of the scope of the present invention, as well as other claims. The disclosure, including any readily discernible variants of the teachings herein, define, in part, the scope of the foregoing claim terminology such that no inventive subject matter is dedicated to the public.

For example, the prefetching engine MPE and the Media Core Router may be one of the same server node in the operator network. Furthermore, each local network may have its own MPE that will either push the prefetched content to the super nodes or store it (as the MPE is local, therefore the access duration to the content is shorter for users from the same DSLAM), the local users accessing the MPE directly to retrieve the prefetched media.

The section headings included herein are intended to facilitate a review but are not intended to limit the scope of the present system. In addition, the section headings included herein are intended to facilitate a review but are not intended to limit the scope of the present system. Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative manner and are not intended to limit the scope of the appended claims. In interpreting the appended claims, it should be understood that: a) the word "comprising" does not exclude the presence of other elements or acts than those listed in a given claim; b) the word "a" or "an" preceding an element does not exclude the presence of a plurality of such elements; c) any reference signs in the claims do not limit their scope; d) several "means" may be represented by the same item or hardware or software implemented structure or function; e) any of the disclosed elements may be comprised of hardware portions (e.g., including discrete and integrated electronic circuitry), software portions (e.g., computer programming), and any combination thereof; f) hardware portions may be comprised of one or both of analog and digital portions; g) any of the disclosed devices or portions thereof may be combined together or separated into further portions unless specifically stated otherwise; h) no specific sequence of acts or steps is intended to be required unless specifically indicated; and i) the term "plurality of" an element includes two or more of the claimed element, and does not imply any particular range of number of elements; that is, a plurality of elements can be as few as two elements, and can include an immeasurable number of elements.

Claims

CLAIMSWhat is claimed is:

1. In an operator network comprising a plurality of geographically distributed local networks and a plurality of subscribers, a method to prefetch multimedia content and render said multimedia content available to said plurality of subscribers, said method comprising for at least one local network the acts of:

- building a community profile based on at least one of said subscribers consumption histories and demographic information,

- prefetching multimedia content based on the community profile, - transmitting the pref etched multimedia content to a limited number of subscribers in the local network so as to render said content available within said local network for a subsequent distribution to subscribers requesting such multimedia content.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein in the act of identifying the local network subscribers, the subscribers are active subscribers, an active subscriber being a subscriber who consumes multimedia content.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the act of transmitting the prefetched multimedia content comprises the act of selecting a plurality of active subscribers as recipients for said prefetched multimedia content based on said active subscribers consumption history and/or demographic information.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the act of identifying the active subscribers further comprises an act of mapping the local network topology, and selecting said active subscribers at least based on said local network topology.

5. The method of claim 1, said method comprising, prior to the act of identifying the subscribers, the acts of:

- collecting the subscribers in the operator network,

- collecting the IP address for each operator network subscriber, - requesting for each collected IP address its Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol

(DHCP) IP range, and;

- identifying from the DHCP IP range of each IP address of an operator network subscriber which local network said operator network subscriber belongs to.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one local network is a Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM).

7. In an operator network comprising a plurality of geographically distributed local networks and a plurality of subscribers, a system to prefetch multimedia content and render said multimedia content available to said plurality of subscribers, said system comprising a prefetching engine being arranged for at least one local network to:

- prefetch multimedia content based on the community profile,

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the subscribers are active subscribers, an active subscriber being a subscriber who consumes multimedia content.

9. The system of claim 8, the prefetching engine being further arranged to select a plurality of active subscribers as recipients for said prefetched multimedia content based on said active subscribers consumption history and/or demographic information.

10. The system of claim 9, the prefetching engine being further arranged to map the local network topology, and select said active subscribers at least based on said local network topology.

11. The system of claim 7, the prefetching engine being further arranged to: - collect the subscribers in the operator network,

- collect the IP address for each operator network subscriber,

- request for each collected IP address its Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) IP range, and;

- identify from the DHCP IP range of each IP address of an operator network subscriber which local network said operator network subscriber belongs to.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein the local network is a Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM).

13. In an operator network comprising a plurality of geographically distributed local networks and a plurality of subscribers, a prefetching engine to prefetch multimedia content and render said multimedia content available to said plurality of subscribers, said prefetching engine being arranged for at least one local network to:

- build a community profile based on at least one of said subscribers consumption histories and demographic information, - prefetch multimedia content based on the community profile, - transmit the prefetched multimedia content to a limited number of subscribers in the local network so as to render said content available within said local network for a subsequent distribution to subscribers requesting such multimedia content.

14. The prefetching engine of claim 13, wherein the subscribers are active subscribers, an active subscriber being a subscriber who consumes multimedia content.

15. The prefetching engine of claim 14, further arranged to select a plurality of active subscribers as recipients for said prefetched multimedia content based on said active subscribers consumption history and/or demographic information.

16. The prefetching engine of claim 15, further arranged to map the local network topology, and select said active subscribers at least based on said local network topology.

17. The prefetching engine of claim 13, further arranged to:

- collect the subscribers in the operator network,

- collect the IP address for each operator network subscriber,

- request for each collected IP address its Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) IP range, and; - identify from the DHCP IP range of each IP address of an operator network subscriber which local network said operator network subscriber belongs to.

18. A computer readable carrier including computer program instructions that cause a computer to implement a method to prefetch multimedia content and render said multimedia content available to a plurality of subscribers of an operator network comprising a plurality of geographically distributed local networks, said readable carrier comprising for at least one local network:

- instructions to identify the local network active subscribers, an active subscriber being a subscriber who consumes multimedia content, each active subscriber being characterized by at least one of a consumption history and subscriber demographic information, said active subscribers from the local network forming a community, - instructions to build a local network community profile based on at least one of said active subscribers consumption histories and demographic information,

- instructions to prefetch multimedia content based on the local network community profile,

- instructions to transmit the prefetched multimedia content to a limited number of active subscribers in the local network so as to render said content available within said local network for a subsequent distribution to active subscribers requesting such multimedia content.