Methods and systems for providing video on demand

• US 20040187160A1
• Filed: 03/17/2003
• Published: 09/23/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/17/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qwest Communications International Incorporated (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Qwest Communications International Incorporated (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Cook, Charles I., Phillips, Bruce A., Casey, Steven M., Brodigan, Donald L., Campbell, Kurt A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,832,758 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/94
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2225 Local VOD servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23406 involving management of server-side video buffer
• 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 21/2387 Stream processing in response to a playback request from an end-user, e.g. for trick-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17336 Handling of requests in head-ends

Abstract

Methods and systems provide a selected video segment to customer premises equipment. A request is received from the customer premises equipment for transmission of the selected video segment. A copy of the selected video segment is transferred to one of a plurality of buffers. One of the plurality of buffers is mapped through a routing network to a port interfaced with the customer premises equipment. The selected video segment is transmitted from the one of the plurality of buffers through the routing network and port to the customer premises equipment.

Claims

1. A method for providing a selected video segment to customer premises equipment, the method comprising:

receiving a request for transmission of the selected video segment from the customer premises equipment;

transferring a copy of the selected video segment to one of a plurality of buffers;

mapping the one of the plurality of buffers through a routing network to a port interfaced with the customer premises equipment; and

transmitting the selected video segment from the one of the plurality of buffers through the routing network and port to the customer premises equipment.

2. The method recited in claim 1 wherein transmitting the selected video segment is performed substantially contemporaneously with receiving the request for transmission of the selected video segment.

3. The method recited in claim 1 wherein transmitting the selected video segment is performed at a time specified by the request.

4. The method recited in claim 1 further comprising transmitting a request for the copy of the selected video segment to a central video library that comprises the selected video segment.

5. The method recited in claim 4 wherein transmitting the request for the copy of the selected video segment to the central video library comprises transmitting indexing information for the selected video segment to the central video library.

6. The method recited in claim 1 further comprising receiving the copy of the selected video segment from a central video library that comprises the selected video segment.

7. The method recited in claim 1 further comprising:

receiving a transmission instruction from the customer premises equipment; and

modifying transmission of the selected video segment from the one of the plurality of buffers to the customer premises equipment in accordance with the transmission instruction.

8. The method recited in claim 7 wherein:

the selected video segment comprises an interactive video segment; and

modifying transmission of the selected video segment comprises selecting one of a plurality of possible contents for transmission in accordance with the transmission instruction.

9. The method recited in claim 7 further comprising subindexing indexed frames of the selected video segment into indexed subframes, wherein modifying transmission of the selected video segment comprises selecting one of the indexed subframes for transmission.

10. The method recited in claim 1 further comprising deleting the copy of the selected video segment from the one of the plurality of buffers.

11. The method recited in claim 1 further comprising maintaining the copy of the selected video segment in a video library local to the plurality of buffers.

12. The method recited in claim 1 further comprising:

receiving a second request for transmission of the selected video segment from a second customer premises equipment; and

transferring a second copy of the selected video segment to a second of the plurality of buffers;

mapping the second of the plurality of buffers through the routing network to a port interfaced with the second customer premises; and

transmitting the selected video segment from the second of the plurality of buffers through the routing network and second port to the second customer premises equipment.

13. The method recited in claim 12 wherein transmitting the selected video segment from the second of the plurality of buffers is time-shifted with respect to transmitting the selected video segment from the one of the plurality of buffers.

14. The method recited in claim 1 wherein transferring the copy of the selected video segment to the one of the plurality of buffers comprises transferring a previously stored copy of the selected video segment from a video library local to the plurality of buffers to the one of the plurality of buffers.

15. The method recited in claim 1 wherein the selected video segment comprises a selected video program.

16. The method recited in claim 1 further comprising combining the selected video program with a second video program, wherein transferring the copy of the selected video program to the one of the plurality of buffers comprises transferring a combination of the selected video program and second video program to the one of the plurality of buffers.

17. A system for providing a selected video segment to customer premises equipment, the system comprising:

a content-transfer server interfaced with a head end having a central video library that houses a copy of the selected video segment, wherein the content-transfer server is adapted to generate multiple streams of content received from the head end and to control transmission of the multiple streams of content in accordance with transmission instructions received from the customer premises equipment;

a routing network interfaced with the content-transfer server and adapted to implement a mapping of the multiple streams of content; and

a plurality of ports adapted to transmit the mapped streams of content over a transmission medium, wherein one of the plurality of ports is interfaced with the customer premises equipment with the transmission medium.

18. The system recited in claim 17 wherein the transmission instructions comprise a request from the customer premises equipment for transmission of the selected video segment.

19. The system recited in claim 17 wherein the transmission instructions comprise a request to modify transmission of the selected video segment.

20. The system recited in claim 17 wherein the content-transfer server comprises a plurality of content-transfer servers.

21. The system recited in claim 20 wherein the routing network comprises a plurality of routing networks, wherein each of the plurality of routing networks is interfaced with one of the plurality of content-transfer servers.

22. The system recited in claim 17 wherein the content-transfer server comprises:

a local video library adapted to store a copy of the selected video segment;

a plurality of buffers adapted to exchange content with the routing network; and

an index module adapted to load frames of the selected video segment from the local video library into the buffers.

23. The system recited in claim 22 wherein the index module is adapted to load frames into different buffers on a time-shifted basis.

24. The system recited in claim 22 wherein at least one of the plurality of buffers is adapted to subindex indexed frames of the selected video segment into a plurality of indexed subframes.

25. A system for providing video programming, the system comprising:

a head end comprising a central video library that houses a plurality of video segments;

a plurality of node terminals, each of which is adapted to exchange content with a plurality of customer premises equipment; and

a distribution network adapted to interface the head end with the plurality of node terminals,

wherein each of the plurality of node terminals is adapted to retrieve a copy of a selected video segment from the head end in response to a request for transmission of the selected video segment from one of the plurality of customer premises equipment and to transmit the selected video segment to the one of the plurality of customer premises equipment at a time specified by the request.

26. The system recited in claim 25 wherein the head end further comprises an index framer in communication with the central video library and adapted to encode each of the plurality of video segments into indexed frames.

27. The system recited in claim 25 wherein at least one of the plurality of node terminals comprises:

a content-transfer server adapted to generate multiple streams of content received from the head end and to control transmission of the multiple streams of content in accordance with transmission instructions received from the customer premises equipment; and

a plurality of ports adapted to transmit the multiple streams of content over transmission media to the customer premises equipment.

28. The system recited in claim 27 wherein the at least one of the plurality of node terminals further comprises a routing network adapted to implement a mapping of the multiple streams of content from the content-transfer server to the plurality of ports.

29. The system recited in claim 28 wherein the at least one of the plurality of node terminals further comprises:

a local video library adapted to store a copy of at least one of the plurality of video segments;

a plurality of buffers adapted to exchange content with the routing network; and

an index module adapted to load frames of the at least one of the plurality of video segments from the local video library into the buffers.

30. A system for providing a selected video segment to customer premises equipment, the system comprising:

means for receiving a request for transmission of the selected video segment from the customer premises equipment;

means for generating multiple streams of the selected video segment;

means for mapping the multiple streams through a routing network to ports interfaced with the customer premises equipment; and

means for transmitting the multiple stream through the routing network and ports to the customer premises equipment in accordance with the mapping.

31. The system recited in claim 30 further comprising means for storing a copy of the selected video segment.

32. The system recited in claim 30 further comprising means for encoding the selected video segment into indexed frames.

33. The system recited in claim 30 wherein the means for generating multiple streams of the selected video segment comprises:

means for storing a copy of the selected video segment;

means for exchanging content with the routing network; and

means for loading frames of the selected video segment from the means for storing a copy of the selected video segment into the means for exchanging content with the routing network.