Controlling digital data distribution in a relay server network

• US 20030140122A1
• Filed: 11/07/2002
• Published: 07/24/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 05/31/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: PrediWave Corp.
• Original Assignee: PrediWave Corp.
• Inventors: Hoang, Khoi
• Application Number:
  US10/291,317
• Publication Number:
  US 20030140122A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/611 for multicast or broadcast systems for broadcast or conference H04L12/18; arrangements for broadcast or distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/00; arrangements for broadcast applications with a direct linkage to broadcast information or to broadcast space-time H04H60/00; selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS], H04W4/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/613 for the control of the source by the destination control signals issued by the client directed to the server or network components specially adapted for selective content distribution H04N21/637
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/70 Media network packetisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2385 Channel allocation H04N21/266 takes precedence; Bandwidth allocation H04N21/24 takes precedence ; allocation of channels according to the instantaneous demands of the users in time-division multiplex systems H04J3/1682; admission control, resource allocation in open networks H04L12/5692; arrangements for maintenance or administration in data switching networks involving bandwidth and capacity management H04L41/0896; negotiating bandwidth in wireless networks H04W28/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/262 Content or additional data distribution scheduling, e.g. sending additional data at off-peak times, updating software modules, calculating the carousel transmission frequency, delaying a video stream transmission, generating play-lists scheduling strategies for dispatcher in multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/4881; arrangements for scheduling broadcast services or broadcast-related services H04H60/06; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10; establishing a time schedule or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/62
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26216 involving the channel capacity, e.g. network bandwidth admission control, resource allocation in open networks H04L12/5692; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10; establishing a schedule or organising the servicing of application requests taking into account QoS H04L67/61
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26233 involving content or additional data duration or size, e.g. length of a movie, size of an executable file
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26241 involving the time of distribution, e.g. the best time of the day for inserting an advertisement or airing a children program
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26275 for distributing content or additional data in a staggered manner, e.g. repeating movies on different channels in a time-staggered manner in a near video on demand system
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4181 for conditional access
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/472 End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or services; End-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification, for manipulating displayed content end-user interfaces for retrieving video data from a database G06F16/739; network services for supporting unicast streaming H04L65/612
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/845 Structuring of content, e.g. decomposing content into time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 : Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 : Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 : Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

The present invention teaches methods and systems for providing a relay server for enabling a data-on-demand (DOD) digital broadcast system to provide digital DOD service via a communications medium over one or more channels, the relay server comprising: an communications network interface for receiving at least one DOD service from the DOD digital broadcast system, wherein the DOD service is formatted as a stream of data blocks arranged in a schedule such that a first data block of the DOD service may be accessed at any selected time period; a uni-directional network interface for providing the stream of data blocks to a plurality of users, wherein the users may access the first data block at any time period and may access subsequent data blocks of the stream of data blocks thereby accessing the at least one DOD service.

Claims

1. A relay server system comprising:

a communications interface for receiving data transmissions from a digital data server system; and

uni-directional interface for providing digital data transmissions to a plurality of clients via a wide area network, wherein said relay server does not require upstream communications to provide said digital data transmissions to said clients.

2. A uni-directional relay server as recited in claim 1, wherein said communications interface is further operative for receiving at least one data file from said digital data server system, wherein said data file is formatted as a stream of data blocks arranged in a schedule such that a first data block of said data file may be accessed at any selected time period;

and wherein said uni-directional interface is further operative for providing said stream of data blocks to a plurality of users, and wherein said users may access said first data block at any time period and may access subsequent data blocks of said stream of data blocks thereby accessing said at least one data file on demand.

3. A relay server system as recited in claim 2, wherein said at least one data file is a plurality of data files formatted as a stream of data blocks arranged in a schedule such that a first data block of a selected one of said plurality of data files may be accessed at any selected time period, and wherein a user may access subsequent data blocks of said selected data file thereby accessing any one of said plurality of data files on demand.

4. A relay server system as recited in claim 2, wherein said accessing said selected data file by said users includes displaying at least a portion of a graphical representation of at least one of said data blocks.

5. A relay server system as recited in claim 3, wherein said downstream network interface is communicatively coupled to a plurality of set-top-boxes via a cable network.

6. A relay server system as recited in claim 5, wherein said set-top-boxes include an audio-visual display apparatus for displaying at least a portion of at least one of said data files.

7. A relay server system as recited in claim 5, wherein said downstream network interface is not operative to receive data from said plurality of set-top-boxes.

8. A relay server system as recited in claim 3, wherein said relay server is incapable of receiving information from said user.

9. A relay server system as recited in claim 5, wherein said relay server is uni-directionally coupled to said plurality of set-top-boxes.

10. A relay server system as recited in claim 2, wherein said communications interface is operative to receive digitally encoded data, and wherein said uni-directional network interface is operative to transmit said received digitally encoded data to a plurality of data receivers operative to decode said encoded data.

11. A relay server system as recited in claim 2, wherein said uni-directional network interface provides said stream of data blocks as electronic signals.

12. A relay server system as recited in claim 2, wherein said communications interface is operative to receive data from a server system, and wherein at least one of said plurality of set-top-boxes is operative to communicate with said server system via a communications medium.

13. A relay server system as recited in claim 12, wherein said communications medium includes a telephone network.

14. A relay server system as recited in claim 12, wherein said communications medium includes a wireless network.

15. A relay server system as recited in claim 12, wherein said communications medium includes the Internet.

29. A method as recited in claim 12, wherein said stream of data blocks is transmitted to a plurality of set-top-boxes via a cable network.

30. A method as recited in claim 29, wherein said set-top-boxes include an audio-visual display apparatus for displaying at least a portion of at least one of said DOD services.

31. A method as recited in claim 29, wherein said method excludes receiving data from said plurality of set-top-boxes.

34. A method as recited in claim 29, wherein said set-top-boxes include advanced television receivers having internal set-top-boxes.

35. A method as recited in claim 29, further including receiving digitally encoded data and transmitting said digitally encoded data via said cable network.

16. A relay server for enabling a data-on-demand (DOD) digital broadcast system to provide digital DOD service via a communications medium over one or more channels, said relay server comprising:

an communications network interface for receiving at least one DOD service from said DOD digital broadcast system, wherein said DOD service is formatted as a stream of data blocks arranged in a schedule such that a first data block of said DOD service may be accessed at any selected time period; and

a uni-directional network interface for providing said stream of data blocks to a plurality of users, wherein said users may access said first data block at any time period and may access subsequent data blocks of said stream of data blocks thereby accessing said at least one DOD service.

17. A relay server as recited in claim 16, wherein said at least one DOD service is a plurality of DOD services formatted as a stream of data blocks arranged in a schedule such that a first data block of a selected DOD services may be accessed during any selected time period, and wherein a user may access subsequent data blocks of said selected DOD service, thereby accessing said selected DOD service on demand.

18. A relay server as recited in claim 16, wherein said accessing said at least one DOD service by said users includes displaying at least a portion of a graphical representation of at least one of said data blocks.

19. A relay server as recited in claim 17, wherein said uni-directional network interface is communicatively coupled to a plurality of set-top-boxes via a cable network.

20. A relay server as recited in claim 19, wherein said set-top-boxes include an audio-visual display apparatus for displaying at least a portion of at least one of said DOD services.

21. A relay server as recited in claim 19, wherein said uni-directional network interface may not receive data from said plurality of set-top-boxes.

22. A relay server as recited in claim 17, wherein said relay server is incapable of receiving information from said user.

23. A relay server as recited in claim 19, wherein said relay server is uni-directionally coupled to said plurality of set-top-boxes.

24. A relay server as recited in claim 16, wherein said communications network interface is operative to receive digitally encoded data, and wherein said uni-directional network interface is operative to transmit said received digitally encoded data.

25. A universal broadcast system as recited in claim 16, wherein said uni-directional network interface provides said stream of data blocks as electronic signals.

26. A relay server method for providing data-on-demand (DOD) digital services via a communications medium over one or more channels, said relay server method comprising the acts of:

receiving at least one DOD service from a DOD broadcast server system, wherein said DOD service is formatted as a stream of data blocks arranged in a schedule such that a first data block of said DOD service may be accessed at any selected time period; and

transmitting said stream of data blocks to a plurality of users, wherein said users may access said first data block at any time period and may access subsequent data blocks of said stream of data blocks thereby accessing said at least one DOD service.

27. A method as recited in claim 26, wherein said at least one DOD service is a plurality of DOD services formatted as a stream of data blocks arranged in a schedule such that a first data block of a selected DOD service is accessed at a selected time period, and wherein a user may access subsequent data blocks of said selected DOD service thereby accessing any one of said plurality of DOD services on demand.

28. A method as recited in claim 26, wherein said accessing said selected DOD service by said users includes displaying at least a portion of a graphical representation of at least one of said data blocks.

32. A method as recited in claim 27, wherein said stream of data blocks is transmitted to said plurality of set-top-boxes as an electronic signal.

33. A method as recited in claim 32, further comprising amplifying said stream of data blocks.

36. A digital data relay server system for providing digital data services to a plurality of users via a communications medium over one or more channels, said system comprising:

first means for receiving at least one DOD service from a DOD digital broadcast server system, wherein said DOD service is formatted as a stream of data blocks arranged in a schedule such that a first data block of said DOD service may be accessed at any selected time period; and

second means for providing said stream of data blocks to a plurality of users, wherein said users may access said first data block at any time period and may access subsequent data blocks of said stream of data blocks thereby accessing said DOD service on demand.

37. A data-on-demand (DOD) digital broadcast system for providing digital DOD services via a communications medium, said system comprising:

a digital broadcast server system for providing client generic DOD digital data; and

a digital data relay server system for receiving said DOD digital data, wherein said relay server system is further operative to provide said DOD digital data to a plurality of authorized clients via a network, wherein said authorized clients access said DOD digital data without sending data to said digital relay data server.

38. A data-on-demand (DOD) digital broadcast system as recited in claim 37, wherein said accessing said DOD data by said clients includes displaying at least a portion of a graphical representation of said DOD data.

39. A data-on-demand (DOD) digital broadcast system as recited in claim 37, wherein said relay server provides said DOD data to said clients in a client generic manner.

40. A data-on-demand (DOD) digital broadcast system as recited in claim 37, wherein set-top-boxes (STB) are used to receive said DOD data, and wherein said STBs include an audio-visual display apparatus for displaying at least a portion of at least one of said DOD services.

41. A data-on-demand (DOD) digital broadcast system as recited in claim 40, wherein said STBs are operative to receive and decode digitally encoded data.

42. A data-on-demand (DOD) digital broadcast system as recited in claim 37, wherein said relay server is a first relay server for providing digital data to clients within a first area, wherein said data-on-demand (DOD) digital broadcast system includes a second relay server for providing digital data to clients within a second area, wherein said second relay server is located in communicative proximity to said second area in order to more efficiently provide said digital data to said clients of said second area.

43. A data-on-demand (DOD) digital broadcast system as recited in claim 42, wherein said first area includes a political region such as a state, and wherein said second area includes a political region such as a state.

44. A data-on-demand (DOD) digital broadcast system as recited in claim 43, wherein said first area includes a geographical region such as an island, and wherein said second area includes a portion of a geographical region such as a portion of a continent.