Digital domain content processing and distribution apparatus and methods
First Claim
1. A computerized method of providing digitally rendered content to a plurality of computerized client devices of a content delivery network, the computerized method comprising:
- receiving, at a spectrum generation apparatus, digitally rendered content from one or more content sources, the digitally rendered content comprising one or more packetized program streams;
selecting at least one of the one or more packetized program streams to create targeted narrowcast digitally rendered content for a subset of the plurality of computerized client devices; and
generating a service group for the subset of the plurality of computerized client devices with the selected at least one of the one or more packetized program;
transforming the digitally rendered content using an inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) into digital time domain content, the transforming comprises transforming the selected at least one of the one or more packetized program, the digital time domain content comprising a multiplexed data stream for transmission to said plurality of computerized client devices;
establishing at least one session between the spectrum generation apparatus and the plurality of computerized client devices;
bulk encrypting the digital time domain content, the bulk encrypting based at least on the at least one session; and
transmitting the multiplexed data stream comprising the bulk encrypted digital time domain content to the plurality of computerized client devices, the transmitting comprising transmitting the multiplexed data stream to the service group.
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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.
321 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A computerized method of providing digitally rendered content to a plurality of computerized client devices of a content delivery network, the computerized method comprising:
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receiving, at a spectrum generation apparatus, digitally rendered content from one or more content sources, the digitally rendered content comprising one or more packetized program streams; selecting at least one of the one or more packetized program streams to create targeted narrowcast digitally rendered content for a subset of the plurality of computerized client devices; and generating a service group for the subset of the plurality of computerized client devices with the selected at least one of the one or more packetized program; transforming the digitally rendered content using an inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) into digital time domain content, the transforming comprises transforming the selected at least one of the one or more packetized program, the digital time domain content comprising a multiplexed data stream for transmission to said plurality of computerized client devices; establishing at least one session between the spectrum generation apparatus and the plurality of computerized client devices; bulk encrypting the digital time domain content, the bulk encrypting based at least on the at least one session; and transmitting the multiplexed data stream comprising the bulk encrypted digital time domain content to the plurality of computerized client devices, the transmitting comprising transmitting the multiplexed data stream to the service group. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A spectrum generation apparatus configured to distribute a plurality of heterogeneous types of content from one or more content sources to a plurality of computerized client devices, said spectrum generation apparatus comprising:
server apparatus comprising; processor apparatus; one or more network interfaces in data communication with the processor apparatus and configured to receive said plurality of heterogeneous types of digital content from said plurality of content sources; computerized logic configured to cause allocation of data to one or more frequency carriers when executed by said processor apparatus; and storage apparatus in data communication with the processor apparatus, the storage apparatus comprising at least one computer program configured to, when executed on the processor apparatus; perform an inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) process on said received plurality of heterogeneous types of digital content to convert said received plurality of heterogeneous types of digital content into a plurality of time domain content; encrypt said plurality of time domain content based at least on data associated with one or more sessions between the spectrum generation apparatus and the plurality of computerized client devices; utilize at least said computerized logic to cause allocation of said plurality of time domain content onto a plurality of radio frequency carriers, said allocation comprising allocation over a prescribed bandwidth, the prescribed bandwidth selected to enable insertion of additional content by a device downstream of the spectrum generation apparatus, said allocation further being configured to occur as a function of time so that the allocated time domain content possesses both time and frequency diversity; and cause transmission of said allocated plurality of time domain content to said plurality of computerized client devices over said plurality of radio frequency carriers. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A network architecture for distributing content from a plurality of content sources to a plurality of computerized client devices, the network architecture comprising:
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spectrum generation apparatus comprising; first apparatus configured to receive, from one or more of the plurality of content sources, data packets of a plurality of multiplexed program streams in a packet stream, the data packet comprising formatting of a first domain, the first domain comprising a frequency domain; second apparatus configured to transform, via an inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT), the data packets of the first domain to data in a second domain, the data in the second domain configured for transmission via a plurality of Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) radio frequency (RF) channels associated with a plurality of RF carriers, the second domain comprising a time domain; third apparatus configured to encrypt all of the data in the second domain, the encryption based at least on at least one session established between the spectrum generation apparatus and the plurality of computerized client devices; and fourth apparatus configured to transmit the plurality of encrypted data in the second domain to the plurality of computerized client devices; wherein the network architecture is further configured to create frequency and time diversity based at least on allocation of the data in the second domain to different ones of a plurality of time-frequency resource blocks, at least a portion of the time-frequency resource blocks associated with different ones of the plurality of RF carriers. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification