Method and device for providing video, data and voice to end user devices

• US 8,081,657 B2
• Filed: 03/21/2006
• Issued: 12/20/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ARRIS Enterprises LLC (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: BigBand Networks, Inc. (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Inventors: Oz, Ran, Strasman, Nery
• Primary Examiner(s): Sheikh, Ayaz
• Assistant Examiner(s): HAMPTON, TARELL A
• Application Number:
  US11/277,110
• Publication Number:
  US 20060268697A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,100 Days
• Field of Search: 370/468.477, 370/390, 725/86, 725/87, 725/95
• US Class Current: 370/468
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1836 with heterogeneous network architecture
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/185 with management of multicast group membership
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/765 intermediate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal

Abstract

Method and system for providing data, video and voice to a group of end user devices includes receiving end user device group quality of service rules and access network node bandwidth constraints; assigning multicast addresses and unicast addresses to end user devices of the group in response to the access node bandwidth constraints; and providing, in response to the end user device group quality of service rules and requests to receive services from the residential gateways, data, video and voice utilizing the assigned multicast addresses and unicast addresses. Further methods include receiving location information representative of distances between multiple end user devices and access nodes; defining end user bandwidth constraints in response to the location information and in response to access node bandwidth constraints; and providing, in response to the end user bandwidth constraints and to requests to receive services from the end user devices, data, compressed video and voice.

Claims

1. A method for providing data, video, and voice to a group of end user devices, the method comprising:

receiving end user device group quality of service rules and access network node bandwidth constraints;

receiving from residential gateways at least one request to receive a service;

evaluating the at least one request to receive a service in response to access network node bandwidth constraints and a distance between the end user device group and an access network node;

assigning, in response to a result of the evaluating, multicast addresses and unicast addresses to end user devices of the group; and

compressing at least one video stream provided to at least one end user device in response to a number of the end-user devices that request viewing of the at least one video stream and in response to a location of a recipient of a program;

wherein the compressing comprises compressing the program in different compression levels; and

providing, in response to the end user device group quality of service rules and to the requests to receive services, data, video and voice utilizing the assigned multicast addresses and unicast addresses;

wherein the providing comprises conveying the program over at least two separate unicast and multicast address, while one compressed program is more compressed than another, wherein the more compressed program is conveyed to at least one recipient of the program that is more remote than other recipients.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising allocating a fixed bandwidth to time sensitive traffic, and allocating remaining bandwidth to data and video.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein providing data, video and voice comprises providing targeted advertisements to those of the end user devices that are associated with unicast addresses.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising compressing video streams in response to video quality of service levels associated with multiple ones of the end user devices that receive the video streams.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising assigning the multicast and unicast addresses in response to end user device statistics.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising compressing one video stream provided to a first one of the end user devices by a higher compression ratio than another video stream provided to that first one of the end user devices.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein providing data, video and voice comprises enforcing quality of service rules by selectively compressing video streams.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the end user devices is a residential access gateway.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the evaluating is carried out by a component of a multimedia distribution unit.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving comprises receiving from a first end-user device a request for a program that is conveyed using a multicast address to other end-user devices;

wherein the assigning comprises assigning the multicast address to the first end-user device, and wherein the providing comprises compressing another program that is provided to the first end-user device, which is not the requested program, and providing the compressed another program to the first end-user device.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving comprises receiving from a first end-user device a request for a program that is conveyed using a multicast address to other end-user devices;

wherein the assigning comprises assigning a unicast address to the first end-user device, and wherein the providing comprises compressing the requested program, providing the requested program to the multicast address, and providing the compressed requested program to the first end-user device using the unicast address.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises imposing video, data and voice quality of service levels.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the assigning is carried out further in response to end-user viewing patterns.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein the assigning is carried out further in response to the amount of services that are supported by each end user device.

23. The method according to claim 1 further comprising assigning different compression priorities to unicast programs and multicast programs.

9. A method for providing data, video and voice to a group of end user devices, the method comprising:

receiving location information representative of distances between multiple end user devices and access nodes;

defining end user bandwidth constraints in response to the location information and in response to access node bandwidth constraints;

compressing at least one video stream provided to at least one end user device in response to a number of the end-user devices that request viewing of the at least one video stream and in response to a location of a recipient of a program;

wherein the compressing comprises compressing the program in different compression levels; and

providing, in response to the end user bandwidth constraints and to requests to receive services from the end user devices, data, compressed video, and voice;

wherein the providing comprises conveying the program over at least two separate unicast and multicast address, while one compressed program is more compressed than another, wherein the more compressed program is conveyed to at least one recipient of the program that is more remote than other recipients.

10. The method according to claim 9, further comprising assigning multicast and unicast addresses to streams that convey the voice, data and compressed videos to and assigning different compression priorities to unicast programs and multicast programs.

11. The method according to claim 9, further comprising receiving end user device group quality of service rules, and wherein providing the data, compressed video and voice is further responsive to the end user device group quality of service rules.

12. A system adapted to receive end user device group quality of service rules and access network node bandwidth constraints, the system comprising:

a video aware unit coupled to a data aware unit; and

a management entity accessible to at least one of the data aware unit and adapted to assign multicast addresses and unicast addresses to a group of end user devices in response to the access node bandwidth constraints and a distance between the group of end user devices and an access network node,

wherein the data aware unit and the video aware unit are adapted to provide, in response to the quality of service rules for the group of end user devices and to requests to receive services from residential gateways, data, video, and voice utilizing the assigned multicast addresses and unicast addresses

wherein the video aware unit is adapted to compress at least one video stream provided to at least one of the end user devices in response to a number of the end-user devices that request viewing of the at least one video stream and in response to a location of a recipient of a program;

wherein the system is further adapted to compress the program in different compression levels, to convey the program over at least two separate unicast and multicast address, while one compressed program is more compressed than another, wherein the more compressed program is conveyed to at least one recipient of the program that is more remote than other recipients.

13. The system according to claim 12, wherein the system is further adapted to allocate a fixed bandwidth to time sensitive traffic, and to allocate remaining bandwidth to data and video.

14. The system according to claim 12, wherein the system is further adapted to provide targeted advertisements to those of the end user devices that receive programs over unicast addresses.

15. The system according to claim 12, wherein the system is further adapted to allocate the unicast and multicast addresses based on a load on an access unit that is coupled to the at least one recipient of the program.

20. The system according to claim 15, wherein the system is further adapted to assign different compression priorities to unicast programs and multicast programs.