Method and apparatus for reducing latency in an interactive information distribution system

• US 20030229684A1
• Filed: 04/16/2003
• Published: 12/11/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cox Communications Incorporated (Cox Enterprises Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Sedna Patent Services LLC
• Inventors: Guo, Muyu, Armstrong, James B.
• Granted Patent: US 7,243,133 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/60 Solid state media
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/61 wherein solid state memory is used for storing A/V content
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/21815 comprising local storage units
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23106 involving caching operations prefetching while addressing of a memory level in which the access to the desired data or data block requires associative addressing means within memory systems or architectures G06F12/0862; caching at an intermediate stage in a data network H04L67/568
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2318 using striping
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6587 Control parameters, e.g. trick play commands, viewpoint selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17336 Handling of requests in head-ends
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A method and apparatus for storing, retrieving and distributing multimedia information having frequently accessed multimedia information stored in solid state memory and less frequently accessed multimedia information stored in a mass storage device.

Claims

1. A method for accessing multimedia content in an interactive information distribution system comprising service provider equipment and subscriber equipment, said service provider equipment including a server having solid state memory and at least one mass storage device, the method comprising:

storing an interactive search tool in said solid state memory of said server;

storing said multimedia content in said at least one mass storage device;

providing said interactive search tool to said subscriber equipment in response to a request for services; and

providing said multimedia content to said subscriber equipment in response to a request for content from said interactive search tool.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said solid state memory is a dynamic random access memory.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said mass storage device is a disk drive or disk drive array.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said providing said interactive search tool step further comprises providing a plurality of applet programs and concomitant graphics to said subscriber equipment.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the search tool is a program guide.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said server comprises a plurality of processor subsystems.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein said processor subsystems comprise at least one parity processor subsystem and said solid state memory is associated with said at least one parity processor subsystem.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein each of said processor subsystems comprises a solid state memory, said method further comprising:

identifying a portion of said multimedia content identified as frequently accessed multimedia content; and

storing said identified content in said plurality of solid state memory.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the plurality of solid state memories are associated with a plurality of parity processor subsystems.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein said plurality of solid state memories are associated with processor subsystems that are less used than other processor subsystems.

18. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

identifying a portion of said multimedia content identified as frequently accessed multimedia content; and

storing said identified content in said solid state memory.

11. Apparatus for accessing multimedia content in an interactive information distribution system comprising:

subscriber equipment;

service provider equipment coupled to said subscriber equipment via a distribution network, said service provider equipment comprising;

a server having solid state memory for storing an interactive search tool and at least one mass storage device for storing said multimedia content; and

wherein said server provides said interactive search tool to said subscriber equipment in response to a request for services, and provides said multimedia content to said subscriber equipment in response to a request for content from said interactive search tool.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein said server comprises a plurality of processor subsystems, each processor subsystem comprising said solid state memory and said mass storage device, where said interactive search tool is striped across a plurality of said solid state memory in said processor subsystems.

13. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the solid state memory is dynamic random access memory.

14. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein said providing said interactive search tool step further comprises providing a plurality of applet programs and concomitant graphics to said subscriber equipment.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein said search tool is a program guide.

16. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein a number of said plurality of solid state memory used to store said interactive search tool is less than the total number of solid state memories available for such storage.

17. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein a subset of said plurality of processor subsystems are parity processor subsystems and said interactive search tool is stored in said parity processor subsystems.

19. Apparatus for accessing multimedia content in an interactive information distribution system comprising service provider equipment and subscriber equipment, said service provider equipment including a server having solid state memory and at least one mass storage device, the method comprising:

means for storing an interactive search tool in said solid state memory of said server;

means for storing said multimedia content in said at least one mass storage device;

means for providing said interactive search tool to said subscriber equipment in response to a request for services; and

means for providing said multimedia content to said subscriber equipment in response to a request for content from said interactive search tool.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein said means for providing said interactive search tool step further comprises means for providing a plurality of applet programs and concomitant graphics to said subscriber equipment.

21. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein said server comprises a plurality of processor subsystems.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein each of said processor subsystems comprises a solid state memory, said method further comprising:

means for identifying a portion of said multimedia content identified as frequently accessed multimedia content; and

means for storing said identified content in said plurality of solid state memory.