System and method for monitoring whole home digital video recorder usage for internet protocol television

• US 9,813,747 B2
• Filed: 06/03/2016
• Issued: 11/07/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/16/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ospalik, Kenneth, Earnshaw, Marisa, Malee, Daniel P., Mathew, John, Tektumanidze, Giya
• Primary Examiner(s): Lewis, Jonathan V
• Application Number:
  US15/172,961
• Publication Number:
  US 20160286255A1
• Time in Patent Office: 522 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2393 involving handling client requests scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60
• 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 21/26216 involving the channel capacity, e.g. network bandwidth admission control, resource allocation in open networks H04L12/5692; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10; establishing a schedule or organising the servicing of application requests taking into account QoS H04L67/61
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2662 Controlling the complexity of the video stream, e.g. by scaling the resolution or bitrate of the video stream based on the client capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17336 Handling of requests in head-ends

Abstract

The subject disclosure describes identifying a table associated with a set-top box that receives services from equipment of a video head-end office, where the table indicates that the set-top box has requested a video stream that would exceed a first number of video streams allocated to the set-top box and would exceed a bandwidth configuration, detecting a conflicting event according to information in the table, reconfiguring the bandwidth configuration allocated to the plurality of set-top boxes to resolve the conflicting event, determining a second number of video streams requested by the plurality of set-top boxes when the conflicting event occurred, determining a third number of video streams to resolve the conflicting event based on a difference between the first number of video streams and the second number of video streams, and instructing the equipment to provide the third number of video streams to the set-top box. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage device, comprising instructions which, responsive to being executed by a processing system comprising a processor, cause the processing system to perform operations comprising:

determining a bandwidth configuration of a plurality of customer premises equipment that receive services from equipment of a video head-end office of a media network;

storing the bandwidth configuration of the plurality of customer premises equipment;

processing a data file associated with the plurality of the customer premises equipment, wherein the data file indicates a first equipment of the plurality of the customer premises equipment that has requested a video stream;

detecting from the data file a conflicting event based on a determination that supplying the video stream to the first equipment would exceed a first number of video streams supplied to the plurality of the customer premises equipment or would exceed the bandwidth configuration of the plurality of the customer premises equipment;

determining a number of times that other conflicting events were created by the first equipment; and

updating the first number of video streams or the bandwidth configuration based on the number of times.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise determining whether to reconfigure the bandwidth configuration of the first equipment of the plurality of customer premises equipment and the equipment of the video head-end office to resolve the conflicting event.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein the data file comprises an identification of the first equipment and wherein the processor comprises a plurality of processors operating in a distributed processing environment.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein the data file comprises a total number of video streams transmitted from the equipment of the video head-end office to the first equipment of the plurality of customer premises equipment.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 1 wherein the data file comprises a first number of high definition video streams and a second number of standard definition video streams being transmitted to the first equipment of the plurality of customer premises equipment when the video stream was requested.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein the data file comprises an indication that the video stream being requested would exceed the first number of video streams.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein the bandwidth configuration comprises a first number of high definition video streams and a second number of standard definition video streams allocated to the first equipment.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein the first equipment comprises a set-top box.

9. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a processing system comprising a processor, a table descriptive of services provided to a plurality of customer premises equipment by equipment of a video head-end office;

detecting, by the processing system, from the table a conflicting event based on a determination that supplying a video stream to first equipment of the plurality of customer premises equipment would exceed a first number of video streams allocated to the plurality of customer premises equipment or would exceed a communication bandwidth allocated between the plurality of customer premises equipment and the equipment of the video head-end office;

determining, by the processing system, according to the table, a second number of video streams to supply to the plurality of the customer premises equipment to accommodate the video stream requested by the first equipment of the plurality of customer premises equipment;

determining, by the processing system, a third number of video streams to resolve the conflicting event based on a difference between the first number of video streams and the second number of video streams;

creating, by the processing system, a data file associated with the conflicting event, wherein the data file indicates the first equipment of the plurality of the customer premises equipment that has requested the video stream; and

determining, by the processing system, a second communication bandwidth to allocate to the first equipment of the plurality of customer premises equipment based on how often past data files have been created.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising instructing, by the processing system, the equipment of the video head-end office to provide the third number of video streams to the first equipment of the plurality of customer premises equipment.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the table comprises an identification of the first equipment and wherein the processor comprises a plurality of processors operating in a distributed processing environment.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the table comprises a total number of video streams transmitted from the equipment of the video head-end office to the first equipment of the plurality of customer premises equipment.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the table comprises a first number of high definition video streams and a second number of standard definition video streams transmitted to the first equipment of the plurality of customer premises equipment when the video stream was requested.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the table comprises an indication that the video stream being requested would exceed the first number of video streams and the communication bandwidth allocated to the first equipment.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein the first equipment comprises a media processor.

16. A system, comprising:

a processing system including a processor; and

a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processing system, facilitate performance of operations, comprising;

identifying a table associated with a plurality of customer premises equipment that receives services from equipment of a video head-end office, wherein the table indicates that a first equipment of the plurality of customer premises equipment has requested a video stream that would exceed a first number of video streams allocated to the plurality of customer premises equipment or would exceed a bandwidth configuration allocated to the plurality of customer premises equipment including the first equipment requesting the video stream;

detecting a conflicting event according to information in the table;

creating a data file associated with the conflicting event, wherein the data file indicates the first equipment of the plurality of the customer premises equipment that has requested the video stream;

reconfiguring the bandwidth configuration allocated to the first equipment to resolve the conflicting event; and

updating the table with the bandwidth configuration allocated to the first equipment of the plurality of customer premises equipment based on how often past data files have been created.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise updating the first number of video streams allocated to the plurality of customer premises equipment in the table.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the bandwidth configuration comprises a bandwidth allocation to each of the plurality of customer premises equipment and wherein the processor comprises a plurality of processors operating in a distributed processing environment.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise updating a total number of video streams transmitted from the equipment of the video head-end office to the plurality of customer premises equipment in the table.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the table comprises a first number of high definition video streams and a second number of standard definition video streams being transmitted to the plurality of the customer premises equipment when the video stream was requested by the first equipment and wherein the operations further comprise updating the first number of high definition video streams and the second number of standard definition video streams being transmitted to the plurality of the customer premises equipment when the video stream was requested by the first equipment in the table.