Digital domain content processing and distribution apparatus and methods
First Claim
1. A computerized method of providing digitally rendered content to a plurality of users of a content distribution network, the computerized method comprising:
- receiving digitally rendered content from one or more content sources, the digitally rendered content comprising one or more packetized program streams;
selecting one or more of the one or more packetized program streams to create targeted narrowcast digitally rendered content for a subset of the plurality of users;
generating a service group for the subset of the plurality of users with the selected one or more packetized program streams;
converting the selected one or more packetized program streams using an inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) into a digital data stream suitable for transmission to the service group, the digital data stream comprising a radio frequency spectrum for supporting one or more user services; and
transmitting the digital data stream to the service group over one or more frequency carriers.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Methods and apparatus for distributing content using a spectrum generation device. In one embodiment, digital content is received via a time-multiplexed network transport (such as Gigabit Ethernet), and converted to frequency channels suitable for transmission over a content distribution (e.g., Hybrid Fiber Coaxial (HFC)) network. In one variant, the conversion is performed using digital domain processing performed by a full spectrum generation device. Additionally, methods and apparatus for selectively adding, removing, and/or changing digital content from the full spectrum device are also disclosed. Various aspects of the present invention enable physical (infrastructure) consolidation, and software-implemented remote management of content distribution.
229 Citations
21 Claims
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1. A computerized method of providing digitally rendered content to a plurality of users of a content distribution network, the computerized method comprising:
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receiving digitally rendered content from one or more content sources, the digitally rendered content comprising one or more packetized program streams; selecting one or more of the one or more packetized program streams to create targeted narrowcast digitally rendered content for a subset of the plurality of users; generating a service group for the subset of the plurality of users with the selected one or more packetized program streams; converting the selected one or more packetized program streams using an inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) into a digital data stream suitable for transmission to the service group, the digital data stream comprising a radio frequency spectrum for supporting one or more user services; and transmitting the digital data stream to the service group over one or more frequency carriers. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A computerized method of providing digitally rendered content to a plurality of subscribers over a radio frequency bearer medium of a managed content distribution network, the computerized method comprising:
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receiving bulk encrypted digitally rendered content from one or more content sources, the digitally rendered content comprising one or more packetized program streams; decrypting the bulk encrypted digitally rendered content; applying conditional access encryption to various ones of the digitally rendered content for delivery to specific ones of the plurality of subscribers to produce re-encrypted digitally rendered content; transforming the re-encrypted digitally rendered content using an inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) into a digital data stream suitable for transmission to the plurality of subscribers via the bearer medium, the bearer medium comprising a radio frequency spectrum for supporting one or more subscriber services; dynamically allocating each of the one or more subscriber services to a prescribed frequency carrier or band of carriers of the radio frequency spectrum, the allocating being based at least partly on one or more changes to service offerings and according to at least one configuration data structure; and transmitting the digital data stream to the plurality of subscribers via the radio frequency spectrum. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A computerized content processing apparatus configured to distribute digitally rendered content from a plurality of content sources to a plurality of users of a managed content distribution network, the computerized content processing apparatus comprising:
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one or more network interfaces configured to receive the digitally rendered content from the plurality of content sources; one or more downstream interfaces configured to transmit data streams to the plurality of users via one or more frequency resources, the one or more frequency resources comprising a plurality of radio frequency carriers for supporting one or more subscriber services; a processor apparatus in data communication with the one or more network interfaces and the one or more downstream interfaces; and a storage apparatus in data communication with the processor apparatus and comprising at least one computer program, the at least one computer program comprising a plurality of instructions that, when executed by the processor apparatus, cause the computerized content processing apparatus to; dynamically assign the received digitally rendered content to the one or more frequency resources based at least partly on changes to the one or more subscriber services; and multiplex the received digitally rendered content into a frequency division multiplexed (FDM) data stream for transmission to the plurality of users via the one or more frequency resources; wherein the one or more network interfaces are configured to dynamically determine one or more service types of the one or more subscriber services in order update allocation of the received digitally rendered content to the one or more frequency resources according to one or more operational optimizations. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
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21. A computerized method of providing digitally rendered content to a plurality of users of a content distribution network, the computerized method comprising:
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receiving digitally rendered content from one or more content sources, the digitally rendered content comprising one or more packetized program streams; selecting one or more of the one or more packetized program streams to create targeted narrowcast digitally rendered content for a subset of the plurality of users; generating a service group for the subset of the plurality of users with the selected one or more packetized program streams; converting the selected one or more packetized program streams using an inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) into a digital data stream suitable for transmission to the service group, the digital data stream comprising a radio frequency spectrum for supporting one or more user services; and transmitting, via a first multiplexing stage, the digital data stream to at least a second multiplexing stage over one or more frequency carriers, the second multiplexing stage being downstream from the first multiplexing stage; and wherein the digital data stream comprises an unused portion of the frequency spectrum to enable content insertion by the second multiplexing stage.
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Specification