On-demand digital information delivery system and method using signal fragmentation and linear/fractal sequencing.
First Claim
1. A system for delivering near on-demand digital information to a plurality of local subscribers, comprising:
- a fragmentation unit that fragments a digital item into a sequence of N numbered fragments;
a sequencing processor that responds to a subscriber request for the digital item by generating a sequencing pattern having average and peak bandwidths, said sequencing processor selectively adding and deleting fragments from the sequencing pattern based upon the incidence of requests for the digital item such that the average bandwidth required to service requests occurring with an incidence less than a threshold is set at a low value and the peak bandwidth required to service requests occurring with an incidence greater than the threshold is bounded by an upper bound;
a sequence generator that sequences the fragments into a multi-channel data stream in accordance with the sequencing pattern;
a digital transport system that continuously broadcasts the multi-channel data stream over a plurality of channels at successive time intervals to the local subscribers; and
a plurality of local servers for extracting the fragments from the multi-channel data stream, seamlessly integrating the fragments and delivering them to a plurality of playback devices.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Digital information is delivered on-demand through satellites and other predominantly broadcast transmission systems to local subscribers by fragmenting each digital item into a sequence of ordered fragments and sequencing them based upon the incidence of subscriber requests. Linear and fractal sequencers are used to schedule the fragments when the incidence of requests is respectively below and above a threshold. The linear sequencer responds to the first request by scheduling the item'"'"'s fragments in order at successive time intervals and responds to each successive request by adding only those fragments that the existing schedule cannot accommodate. The fractal sequencer computes a full fractal sequencing pattern, in which the fragments are scheduled with broadcast periods less than or equal to their fragment numbers, and based upon the incidence of requests deletes the fragments in the full pattern that are not required to satisfy the subscribers'"'"' requests. A hybrid sequencer combines the linear and fractal sequencers to minimize the average bandwidth needed to service infrequent requests and places an upper bound on the peak bandwidth required to service frequent requests.
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Citations
39 Claims
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1. A system for delivering near on-demand digital information to a plurality of local subscribers, comprising:
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a fragmentation unit that fragments a digital item into a sequence of N numbered fragments; a sequencing processor that responds to a subscriber request for the digital item by generating a sequencing pattern having average and peak bandwidths, said sequencing processor selectively adding and deleting fragments from the sequencing pattern based upon the incidence of requests for the digital item such that the average bandwidth required to service requests occurring with an incidence less than a threshold is set at a low value and the peak bandwidth required to service requests occurring with an incidence greater than the threshold is bounded by an upper bound; a sequence generator that sequences the fragments into a multi-channel data stream in accordance with the sequencing pattern; a digital transport system that continuously broadcasts the multi-channel data stream over a plurality of channels at successive time intervals to the local subscribers; and a plurality of local servers for extracting the fragments from the multi-channel data stream, seamlessly integrating the fragments and delivering them to a plurality of playback devices. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A system for delivering on-demand digital information to a plurality of local subscribers, comprising:
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a fragmentation unit that provides a digital item as a sequence of N numbered fragments; a linear sequencer that responds to subscriber requests occurring at an incidence less than a given threshold by generating a linear sequencing pattern for broadcasting said fragments, said sequencing processor responding to subsequent requests for the digital item by adding those fragments needed to service the requests to the existing linear sequencing pattern; a fractal sequencer that responds to subscriber requests occurring at an incidence greater than the given threshold by generating a fractal sequencing pattern for broadcasting said fragments, said fractal sequencer computing a full fractal pattern in which each fragment is scheduled with a broadcast period less than or equal to its associated number and then selectively deleting fragments from the full fractal pattern in accordance with the incidence of subscriber requests to form the fractal sequencing pattern; and a transition sequencer for controlling the transition from the linear-to-fractal and fractal-to-linear sequencing patterns when the incidence of requests cross the given threshold by generating a transition pattern; a sequencer generator that sequencer the fragments into a multi-channel data stream in accordance with said linear, fractal, and transition sequencing patterns; a digital transport system that continuously broadcasts the multi-channel data stream over a plurality of channels at successive time intervals to the local subscribers; and a plurality of local servers for extracting the fragments from the multi-channel data stream, seamlessly integrating the fragments and delivering them to a plurality of playback devices. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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29. A method for delivering on-demand digital information to local subscribers, comprising
fragmenting a digital item into a sequence of N numbered fragments; -
monitoring the incidence of on-demand requests for the digital item from a plurality of local subscribers; generating a sequencing pattern for scheduling the fragments at successive time intervals over a bandwidth, said sequencing pattern dynamically allocating the bandwidth based upon the incidence of requests to minimize the average bandwidth required to service requests occurring with an incidence less than a threshold and to place an upper bound of approximately 1+ln(N) on the peak bandwidth required to service requests occurring with an incidence greater than the threshold; and broadcasting the fragments in accordance with the sequencing pattern so that each requesting subscriber receives the first fragment within a known number of time intervals from their respective requests and receives the successive numbered fragments in time to seamlessly integrate the numbered fragments to reconstruct the digital item. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32)
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33. A method for delivering on-demand digital information to local subscribers, comprising
fragmenting a digital item into a sequence of N numbered fragments; -
monitoring the incidence of on-demand requests for the digital item from a plurality of local subscribers; if the incidence of requests is less than a given threshold, scheduling the item'"'"'s fragments in order at successive time intervals to generate a linear sequencing pattern in response to a first request for the item, and thereafter responding to subsequent requests for the digital item by adding those fragments needed to service the requests to the existing linear sequencing pattern; if the incidence of requests is greater than the given threshold, generating a full fractal sequencing pattern by scheduling each fragment with a broadcast period less than or equal to its associated number and then selectively deleting fragments from the full fractal pattern in accordance with the incidence of the subscriber requests to form a dynamic fractal sequencing pattern; when the incidence of requests crosses the threshold, controlling the linear-to-fractal and fractal-to-linear sequencing pattern transitions so that the subscribers receive the first fragment within a known number of time intervals from their respective requests and receive the successive numbered fragments in time to seamlessly integrate the numbered fragments to reconstruct the digital item; and broadcasting the fragments in accordance with the linear and dynamic fractal sequencing patterns. - View Dependent Claims (34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39)
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Specification