Patent ID: 8060145

Claim:
A system for providing digital content to a mobile device from a wireless communications service cell site, comprising: a content gateway configured to predictively receive and forward the digital content from a content server to the cell site over a wireless ancillary channel of a backhaul; a cache unit communicatively coupled to the content gateway and located at the cell site, wherein the cache unit is configured to locally cache the digital content; and the cell site configured to interface the mobile device to the backhaul, wherein the backhaul includes at least the ancillary channel and a primary data channel communicatively coupling the cell site to a data network, wherein the cell site is further configured to provide locally cached digital content that is requested by the mobile device from the cache unit rather than by downloading the requested digital content over the backhaul, wherein the content gateway is configured to predictively receive and forward content based on whether a content request from the mobile device is likely within a predetermined time period; wherein the ancillary channel is a point-to-multipoint channel; and wherein the backhaul includes another ancillary channel that is a logical or virtual channel provided over the primary data channel by employing at least one of quality of service, statistical multiplexing, or dynamic bandwidth allocation techniques.