Distributing On-Demand Multimedia Content
First Claim
1. Customer method of distributing multimedia content to end users, comprising:
- during any interval in a sequence of intervals of duration T;
responding to a first request for a program of multimedia content (PMC) from a first requestor by delivering the PMC from a video server to customer premise equipment (CPE) of the first requestor and storing the PMC thereon; and
responding to subsequent requests for the PMC from subsequent requestors by delivering at least some portion of the PMC from the CPE of a previous requestor.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A disclosed method of distributing multimedia content to end users in a multimedia content distribution network includes segmenting time in a series of intervals referred to herein as limited-chain relay (LCR) intervals. The LCR intervals may have a duration of time T although an LCR interval may be terminated before the duration expires. During any interval, the LCR distribution method includes responding to a first request for a program of multimedia content (PMC) from a first requestor by delivering the PMC from a video server to the customer premises equipment (CPE) of the requestor and storing the PMC on the CPE of the first requestor. The method further includes responding to subsequent requests for the PMC that occur before the time T and before the interval terminates otherwise from subsequent requestors by delivering at least some portion of the PMC to the subsequent requestors from the CPE of at least one previous requestor.
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Citations
23 Claims
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1. Customer method of distributing multimedia content to end users, comprising:
during any interval in a sequence of intervals of duration T; responding to a first request for a program of multimedia content (PMC) from a first requestor by delivering the PMC from a video server to customer premise equipment (CPE) of the first requestor and storing the PMC thereon; and responding to subsequent requests for the PMC from subsequent requestors by delivering at least some portion of the PMC from the CPE of a previous requestor. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. Customer premise equipment (CPE) suitable for use in a multimedia content distribution network, the CPE comprising:
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a processor and computer readable storage media accessible to the processor; a network interface for receiving multimedia content; and a decoder for processing multimedia content received via the network interface; wherein the storage media includes embedded instructions comprising a limited chain relay (LCR) application, the LCR application enabling the CPE to; generate a first request for multimedia content and send the first request to a video server via a network node that is downstream of the video server; receive multimedia content from the video server via the network node and store the multimedia content; receive a message indicating a transmission of a subsequent request for the multimedia content by a subsequent requestor; and in response to receiving the message, transmitting at least a portion of the PMC to the CPE of the subsequent requester via the network node. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22)
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23. A network node comprising processor and processor accessible storage, wherein, embedded in the storage is at least a portion of a limited chain relay distribution application, the application comprising instructions to:
determine a beginning and ending of successive limited-chain relay (LCR) time intervals; responsive to detecting a first request of a current LCR time interval, wherein the first request is for a program of multimedia content (PMC), delivering at least a portion of the PMC to a customer premise equipment (CPE) of the requestor; and responsive to detecting a subsequent request of the current LCR time interval, wherein the subsequent is also for the PMC, signaling the end user associated with the previous request to send at least a portion of the PMC from the previous CPE to a subsequent CPE associated with the subsequent request.
Specification