Method and system for allocating broadcast carrier resources

• US 9,027,068 B2
• Filed: 10/28/2009
• Issued: 05/05/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/18/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: McKiel, Frank A Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lin, Jason K
• Application Number:
  US12/607,462
• Publication Number:
  US 20110072475A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,015 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 725/95
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2385 Channel allocation H04N21/266 takes precedence; Bandwidth allocation H04N21/24 takes precedence ; allocation of channels according to the instantaneous demands of the users in time-division multiplex systems H04J3/1682; admission control, resource allocation in open networks H04L12/5692; arrangements for maintenance or administration in data switching networks involving bandwidth and capacity management H04L41/0896; negotiating bandwidth in wireless networks H04W28/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2402 Monitoring of the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. bandwidth available traffic monitoring in data switching networks H04L43/00; monitoring data switching networks utilization H04L43/0876
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A system instructs that a first carrier signal that is modulated with a first digital media stream be sent to a first receiver, where the first digital media stream uses a first bandwidth. The system receives a second request from a second receiver to send a second digital media stream, where second digital media stream uses a second bandwidth that is greater than the first bandwidth, and determines that transmitting the second digital media stream will require use of the first bandwidth. The system instructs that a second carrier signal be modulated with the first digital media stream and sent to the first television receiver, and sends to the first television receiver an identifier of the second carrier signal as carrying the first digital media stream. The system also instructs that the first carrier signal be modulated with the second digital media stream and sent to the second television receiver, and sends to the second television receiver an identifier of the first carrier signal as carrying the second digital media stream.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a device, a request from a first client for a first media stream;

determining, by the device, a cost metric for displacing a second media stream based on a time-dependent coefficient and a quantity of streams assigned to a half-quadrature amplitude modulated (QAM) associated with the second media stream;

determining, by the device and based on the cost metric for displacing the second media stream, a ranking of half-QAMs that include the half-QAM;

determining, by the device and based on the ranking, that transmitting the first media stream requires use of bandwidth that is occupied in transmitting the second media stream using a first carrier signal of the half-QAM;

sending, by the device and to an edge switching device, a first signal to move the second media stream to a second carrier signal;

sending, by the device and to a second client associated with the second media stream, a first message instructing the second client to tune to the second carrier signal to continue receiving the second media stream;

sending, by the device and to the edge switching device, a second signal to transmit the first media stream by using the first carrier signal; and

sending, by the device and to the first client, a second message identifying the first carrier signal for the first client to receive the first media stream while the second client receives the second media stream.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining the bandwidth required for the first media stream; and

identifying the half-QAMs as half-QAMs that have the bandwidth required for the first media stream.

3. The method of claim 1, where determining that transmitting the first media stream requires use of the bandwidth that is occupied in transmitting the second media stream comprises:

selecting the first carrier signal for the first media stream based on the ranking.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining characteristics of each subscriber associated with the second media stream.

5. The method of claim 4, where determining the cost metric is further based on the characteristics of each subscriber associated with the second media stream.

6. The method of claim 1,

where the first message includes an identifier of the second carrier signal carrying the second media stream, and

where the second message includes an identifier of the first carrier signal carrying the first media stream.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending, via the edge switching device and to the second client, the second carrier signal that is modulated with the second media stream; and

sending, via the edge switching device and to the first client, the first carrier signal that is modulated with the first media stream.

8. The method of claim 1,

where the first media stream is a high-definition (HD) stream, and

where the second media stream is a standard-definition (SD) stream.

9. The method of claim 1, where the device comprises one or more of:

a switched broadcast manager (SBM), or

a switched video analysis (SVA) server.

10. The method of claim 1, where determining that transmitting the first media stream requires use of the bandwidth that is occupied in transmitting the second stream is conducted in real time.

11. A system comprising:

one or more processors to;

receive, from a first client, a request for a first media stream;

determine a cost metric for displacing a second media stream based on a time-dependent coefficient and a quantity of streams assigned to a half-quadrature amplitude modulated (QAM) associated with the second media stream;

determine, based on the cost metric for displacing the second media stream, a ranking of half-QAMs that include the half-QAM;

determine, based on the ranking, that transmitting the first media stream requires use of bandwidth of a first carrier signal, of the half-QAM, that is occupied in transmitting the second media stream;

send, to an edge switching device, a first signal to move the second media stream from the first carrier signal to a second carrier signal;

send, to a second client associated with the second media stream, a first message instructing the second client to tune to the second carrier signal to continue receiving the second media stream;

send, to the edge switching device, a second signal to transmit the first media stream by using the first carrier signal; and

send, to the first client, a second message identifying the first carrier signal for the first client to receive the first media stream while the second client receives the second media stream.

12. The system of claim 11, where the one or more processors are further to:

determine the bandwidth required for the first media stream, and

identify the half-QAMs as half-QAMs that have the bandwidth required for the first media stream.

13. The system of claim 11, where the device is a switched broadcast manager (SBM).

25. The system of claim 11, where, when determining the cost metric, the one or more processors are to:

determine the cost metric based on the time-dependent coefficient, the quantity of streams assigned to the half-QAM, and subscriber information associated with the second stream.

14. A method comprising:

receiving, by one or more devices, a request to transmit a particular media stream to a particular client,

the particular media stream requiring bandwidth of a first type of block from a first carrier signal of a plurality of carrier signals;

determining, by one or more devices, that the first type of block from the first carrier signal is not available;

identifying, when the first type of block is not available, second type of blocks of the first carrier signal that are being used for one or more other streams;

determining, by the one or more devices, a cost metric for displacing the one or more other streams based on a time-dependent coefficient and a quantity of the one or more other streams;

determining, by the one or more devices and based on the cost metric, a ranking associated with a half-quadrature amplitude modulated (QAM)s that includes the second type of blocks;

switching, by the one or more devices and based on the ranking, the one or more other streams from the first carrier signal to a second carrier signal of the plurality of carrier signals to create the bandwidth of the first type of block;

sending, by the one or more devices and to one or more other clients associated with the one or more other streams, a first message instructing the one or more other clients to tune to the second carrier signal to continue receiving the one or more other streams; and

sending, by the one or more devices and to the particular client, a second message identifying the first carrier signal for the particular client to receive the particular media stream while the one or more other clients receive the one or more other streams.

15. The method of claim 14,

where the first type of block includes bandwidth sufficient to carry a high-definition (HD) video stream, and

where a particular block, of the second type of blocks, includes bandwidth sufficient to carry a standard-definition (SD) video stream.

16. The method of claim 14, where the half-QAM has at least one coarse resource block or at least five fine resource blocks.

17. The method of claim 14,

where the first message includes an identifier of the second carrier signal, and

where the second message includes an identifier of the first carrier signal.

18. A method comprising:

receiving, by one or more devices and from a first client, a request to receive a first media stream;

determining, by the one or more devices, a cost metric for displacing a second media stream based on viewership information associated with the second media stream and a quantity of streams assigned to a half-quadrature amplitude modulated (QAM) associated with the second media stream;

determining, by the one or more devices and based on the cost metric, a ranking of half-QAMs that include the half-QAM;

determining, by the one or more devices and based on the ranking, that transmitting the first media stream requires use of a first modulated carrier signal, of the half-QAM, that is presently occupied in transmitting the second media stream to a second client;

sending, by the one or more devices and to the second client, a second modulated carrier signal that is modulated with the second media stream;

sending, by the one or more devices and to the second client, a first message instructing the second client to tune to the second modulated carrier signal to continue receiving the second media stream;

sending, by the one or more devices and to the first client, the first modulated carrier signal that is modulated with the first media stream; and

sending, by the one or more devices and to the first client, a second message identifying the first modulated carrier signal for the first client to receive the first media stream while the second client receives the second media stream.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

determining a first bandwidth required for the first media stream,

the first bandwidth being greater than a second bandwidth that is required to transmit the second media stream, and

identifying the half-QAMs as half-QAMs that have the first bandwidth required for the first media stream.

20. The method of claim 18, where determining that transmitting the second media stream requires use of bandwidth of the first modulated carrier signal comprises:

selecting the second modulated carrier signal based on the ranking.

21. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions, the instructions comprising:

one or more instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to;

receive a request from a first client to send a first stream;

determine a cost metric for displacing one or more streams from a first carrier signal based on a time-dependent coefficient and a quantity of streams assigned to a half-quadrature amplitude modulated (QAM) that includes the one or more streams,

the one or more streams including a second stream;

determine, based on the cost metric, a ranking of half-QAMs that include the half-QAM;

determine, based on the ranking, that transmitting the first stream will require use of the first carrier signal associated with the half-QAM;

send, to a second client, a second carrier signal that is modulated with the second stream;

send, to the second client, a first message instructing the second client to tune to the second carrier signal to continue receiving the second stream;

send, to the first client, the first carrier signal that is modulated with the first stream; and

send, to the first client, a second message identifying the first carrier signal for the first client to receive the first stream while the second client receives the second stream.

22. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 21,

where the first stream is a standard-definition (SD) stream, and

where the second stream is a high-definition (HD) stream.

23. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 21, where the one or more instructions to send the first carrier signal that is modulated with the first stream include:

one or more instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to;

send, to an edge switching device, a command to transmit the first stream to the first client by using the first carrier signal.

24. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 21, where the one or more instructions to determine the cost metric comprise:

one or more instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to;

determine the cost metric based on the time-dependent coefficient, the quantity of streams assigned to the half-QAM, and a quantity of viewers currently tuned to the one or more streams.