Methods and apparatus for format selection for network optimization

• US 20090028182A1
• Filed: 07/24/2007
• Published: 01/29/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/24/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC (Charter Communications Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Time Warner Cable Inc. (Charter Communications Incorporated)
• Inventors: Rieger, Remi, Brooks, Paul D.
• Granted Patent: US 7,770,200 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/466
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/61 for supporting one-way streaming services, e.g. Internet radio
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/752 adapting media to network capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/756 adapting media to device capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/16 Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234327 by decomposing into layers, e.g. base layer and one or more enhancement layers
• 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 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand

Abstract

Method and apparatus for optimizing network bandwidth utilization by delivering to users only the minimum number of programs required by service provider policies. In one embodiment, the method comprises switching some users from lower quality versions of programs to higher quality versions of the same programs, and removing those lower quality versions of programs from a given service group. In another embodiment, some users are switched from higher quality versions of programs to lower quality versions of those same programs, and the higher quality versions of programs removed from a given service group.

Claims

1. A method of operating a content-based network having a plurality of consumer premises equipment (CPE) associated therewith, comprising:

providing a plurality of programs for delivery over said network, at least a portion of said programs being provided in at least two formats;

controllably switching at least some CPE of said network from a first one of said at least two formats to a second one of said at least two formats for a given program, said switching being based at least in part on one or more operational conditions associated with said network; and

removing at least said first one of said formats from programming being delivered over said network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said first one of said at least two formats comprises a lower quality version of said given program, and said second one of said formats comprises a higher quality version of said given program.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said lower quality version comprises a standard definition (SD) version, and said higher quality version comprises a high definition (HD) version.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein said removing comprises removing said first one of said formats from a given service group.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said network comprises a broadcast switched architecture (BSA) network, and said removing comprises switching off said first one of said formats for said given program for at least a portion of said service group.

6. The method of claim 2, further comprising switching at least some of said CPE from a higher quality version of another program to a lower quality version of said another program, and removing said higher quality version of said another program from delivery over said network.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said first one of said at least two formats comprises an MPEG2 encoded format, and said second one of said at least two formats comprises an AVC encoded format.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said first one of said at least two formats comprises an MPEG2 encoded format, and said second one of said at least two formats comprises an MPEG4 encoded format.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said controllably switching comprises selectively switching certain ones of said CPE using a network supervisory process.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said one or more operational conditions comprises available bandwidth on said network.

11. A method of operating a content based network delivering programming rendered in both first and second formats, the method comprising:

identifying a plurality of user devices associated with said network that are capable of utilizing said first type of format; and

causing at least a portion of said devices to tune to a program rendered in said first format instead of the same program rendered in said second format.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising removing at least one instance of said program rendered in said second format from delivery over said network so as to reduce instances of duplicate programming delivery.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein said at least portion of devices are associated with a common portion or node of said network, and said act of causing comprises causing a plurality of user devices associated with that common portion or node to tune to said program rendered in said first format, thereby allowing removal of at least one instances of said program rendered in said second format from delivery to said common portion or node.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein said network comprises a broadcast switched architecture network, said common node portion or node comprises a broadcast switched hub, and said removal comprises selectively switching said at least one instance from delivery using a switch disposed at said hub.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein said network comprises a cable television network, and said plurality of user devices comprise a plurality of set-top boxes.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein said identifying is accomplished using data obtained from a client computer program operative to run on respective ones of said plurality of user devices.

17. The method of claim 11 wherein said identifying comprises associating identifying information for individual ones of said devices with data stored at a substantially central storage location of said network.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein said identifying information comprises information that allows the owner of or subscriber associated with a given one of said devices to remain anonymous.

19. The method of claim 11, wherein said first format comprises a high definition (HD) format, and said second format comprises standard definition (SD) format.

20. The method of claim 11, wherein said first format comprises a high bitrate encoded format, and said second format comprises a lower bitrate encoded format.

21. The method of claim 11, wherein said first format comprises a substantially non-lossy encoded format, and said second format comprises a lossy encoded format.

22. The method of claim 11, wherein said causing at least a portion of said devices to tune a program rendered in said first format instead of the same program rendered in said second format comprises causing said tuning to occur upon requests by users of said devices for said program rendered in said second format.

23. The method of claim 11, wherein said first format comprises a standard definition (SD) format, and said second format comprises a high definition (HD) format.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising conserving network bandwidth at least by reducing the number of instances of HD format programs.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein at least a portion of said plurality of devices comprise an up-conversion capability, thereby providing respective users of said up-conversion capable devices with programming at least approximating the quality provided by said HD format, even though their device has been switched to said programming rendered in said SD format.

26. A method of operating a content-based network, comprising:

making available at least first and second versions of a program;

identifying at least one bandwidth surplus on said network;

determining a persistence associated with said at least one surplus; and

based at least in part on said identifying and determining, selecting one of said first or second versions for delivery over said network.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein said first and second versions comprise a low bitrate version and a high bitrate version of the same program encoded according to the same encoding scheme, respectively.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein said same encoding scheme is selected from the group consisting of:

(i) MPEG encoding schemes, and (ii) Windows Media Video schemes.

29. The method of claim 26, wherein said first and second versions comprise a standard definition (SD) version and a high definition (HD) version of the same program, respectively.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein said identifying comprises identifying a surplus that is insufficient to accommodate said HD version without removal of at least one other program, and said selecting comprises:

selecting said HD version of the program; and

consolidating a plurality of tuners of said network onto said HD version so as to permit removal of at least one SD version of said program from delivery.

31. The method of claim 26, wherein:

said identifying comprises identifying a bandwidth surplus that is sufficient to accommodate the higher-bandwidth version of said first and second versions;

said determining a persistence comprises evaluating whether said persistence associated with said surplus is sufficient to accommodate substantially all of said higher-bandwidth version; and

where said persistence is sufficient, selecting the higher-bandwidth version for delivery.

32. The method of claim 26, wherein said identifying comprises identifying a future bandwidth surplus based at least in part on a predictive analysis.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein said determining is based at least in part on said predictive analysis.

34. The method of claim 32, wherein said predictive analysis comprises analysis of historical bandwidth consumption or allocation data.

35. A method of operating a content-based network, comprising:

delivering at least first and second versions of a program to a plurality of users;

identifying at least one projected bandwidth surplus or deficiency on said network; and

selectively switching ones of said plurality of users from said first version to said second version, or from said second version to said first version, based at least in part on said projected surplus or deficiency.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein said selectively switching comprises switching enough ones of said plurality of users to substantially consume said surplus, or substantially mitigate said deficiency, respectively.

37. The method of claim 35, wherein said identifying comprises:

determining a projected available bandwidth some time in the future;

determining a projected demand for said program; and

determining said surplus or deficiency based at least on said projected available bandwidth and said projected demand.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein at least one of said projected available bandwidth and said projected demand is based on historical data for a network.

39. The method of claim 35, wherein said first and second versions comprise a standard definition (SD) version and a high definition (HD) version of the same program, respectively.

40. The method of claim 39, wherein said identifying comprises identifying a deficiency, and said selectively switching comprises consolidating a plurality of users of said network onto said HD version so as to permit removal of at least one SD version of said program from delivery.

41. The method of claim 39, wherein said selectively switching comprises:

determining that at least some of said ones of said users comprise CPE capable of upconverting from SD to HD resolution; and

selectively switching at least a portion of said users comprising up-conversion capability from said HD version to said SD version of said program.

42. The method of claim 41, wherein said up-conversion comprises:

increasing the number of pixels in a video image by resampling; and

sharpening the edges of objects within the image.