Delivering multimedia services

• US 7,529,856 B2
• Filed: 04/16/2007
• Issued: 05/05/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: At Home Bondholders Liquidating Trust (At Home Corporation)
• Original Assignee: At Home Corporation
• Inventors: Medin, Milo S.
• Primary Examiner(s): NEURAUTER, GEORGE C
• Application Number:
  US11/735,925
• Publication Number:
  US 20070183441A1
• Time in Patent Office: 750 Days
• Field of Search: 709/245, 709/246, 709/249, 370/270, 370/352, 370389-390, 725 32- 36, 725135-153
• US Class Current: 709/249
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/167 using a common memory, e.g. mailbox
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/18 for broadcast or conference , e.g. multicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1836 with heterogeneous network architecture
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1845 broadcast or multicast in a specific location, e.g. geocast protocols for adapting network applications to user terminal location H04L67/52; services specially adapted for wireless communication networks making use of the location of users or terminals H04W4/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1854 with non-centralised forwarding system, e.g. chaincast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1877 Measures taken prior to transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2801 Broadband local area networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2856 Access arrangements, e.g. Internet access asynchronous transfer mode networks H04L12/5601; broadband local area networks H04L12/2801; optical access or distribution networks H04Q11/0067; access to open networks H04L12/5691; digital subscriber line end-user equipment and bit-level processing of data on a PSTN-based network H04M11/00; home network gateways H04L12/2834; wireless access networks H04W
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2861 Point-to-multipoint connection from the data network to the subscribers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/287 Remote access server, e.g. BRAS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2883 ATM DSLAM
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0807 using tickets, e.g. Kerberos cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using tickets or tokens H04L9/3213
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/101 Access control lists [ACL]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/611 for multicast or broadcast systems for broadcast or conference H04L12/18; arrangements for broadcast or distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/00; arrangements for broadcast applications with a direct linkage to broadcast information or to broadcast space-time H04H60/00; selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS], H04W4/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/2885 Hierarchically arranged intermediate devices, e.g. for hierarchical caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 : Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2225 : Local VOD servers
• 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

Abstract

Disclosed is a scalable, hierarchical, distributed network architecture and processes for the delivery of high-performance, end-to-end online multimedia services, including Internet services such as World Wide Web access. The network architecture connects a high-speed private backbone to multiple network access points of the Internet, to a network operation center, to a back office system, and to multiple regional servers in regional data centers. Each of the regional servers connects to several caching servers in modified head-ends, which in turn connect via fiber optics to many neighborhood nodes. Finally, each node connects via coaxial cable to multiple end-user systems. The processes include those for replicating and caching frequently-accessed content, and multicasting content customized per region or locality.

Claims

1. A system for delivery of multimedia services comprising:

a high-speed network backbone carrying content;

at least two regional servers, coupled to the high-speed network backbone and including a first regional server and a second regional server which each provide a second level of caching for content received from the high-speed network backbone, the first regional server configured to customize content received from the high-speed network backbone to form a first version of multicast content and the second regional server configured to customize the content received from the high-speed network backbone to form a second version of multicast content; and

a plurality of caching servers, including a first caching server coupled to the first regional server and a second caching server coupled to the second regional server, each caching server configured to provide a first level of caching of content for an end user system in a region served by the regional server to which it is coupled, and to provide the customized multicast content formed by the coupled regional server to the end-user system;

wherein at least one of the caching servers is associated with a television head-end that provides television signals to the end user system in the region served by the regional server to which it is coupled.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the regional servers comprises a cluster of highly-available servers.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the content received from the high-speed network backbone comprises video content.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the multicast content comprises multimedia content.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the high-speed network backbone is coupled to the Internet.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the multicast content comprises weather information and wherein each regional server customizes the weather information for the region served by the regional server.

7. A method for delivery of multimedia services comprising:

providing a high-speed network backbone carrying content;

providing at least two regional servers, coupled to the high-speed network backbone and including a first regional server and a second regional server which each provide a second level of caching for content received from the high-speed network backbone, the first regional server configured to customize content received from the high-speed network backbone to form a first version of multicast content and the second regional server configured to customize the content received from the high-speed network backbone to form a second version of multicast content; and

providing a plurality of caching servers, including a first caching server coupled to the first regional server and a second caching server coupled to the second regional server, each caching server configured to provide a first level of caching of content for an end user system in a region served by the regional server to which it is coupled, and to provide the customized multicast content formed by the coupled regional server to the end-user system;

wherein at least one of the caching servers is associated with a television head-end that provides television signals to the end user system in the region served by the regional server to which it is coupled.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein at least one of the regional servers comprises a cluster of highly-available servers.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the content received from the high-speed backbone comprises video content.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the multicast content comprises multimedia content.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the high-speed network backbone is coupled to the Internet.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein the multicast content comprises weather information and wherein each regional server customizes the weather information for the region served by the regional server.

13. A system for delivery of multimedia services comprising:

a first regional server coupled to a high-speed network backbone, the first regional server providing a second level of caching for content received from the high-speed network backbone and customizing the received content to form a first version of multicast content;

a second regional server coupled to the high-speed network backbone, the second regional server providing a second level of caching for content received from the high-speed network backbone and customizing the received content to form a second version of multicast content;

a first caching server coupled to the first regional server, the first caching server providing a first level of caching of content received from the first regional server and providing the first version of multicast content to an end-user system in a region served by the first regional server; and

a second caching server coupled to the second regional server, the second caching server providing a first level of caching of content received from the second regional server and providing the second version of multicast content to an end-user system in a region served by the second regional server;

wherein the first caching server is associated with a television head-end that provides television signals to the end user system in the region served by the first regional server.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the first regional server comprises a cluster of highly-available servers.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the content received from the high-speed network backbone comprises video content.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the multicast content comprises multimedia content.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the multicast content comprises weather information and wherein each regional server customizes the weather information for the region served by the regional server.