Methods and apparatus for local channel insertion in an all-digital content distribution network

• US 10,602,231 B2
• Filed: 01/11/2016
• Issued: 03/24/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 08/06/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC (Charter Communications Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC (Charter Communications Incorporated)
• Inventors: Ramsdell, Scott W., Hardin, Glen
• Primary Examiner(s): Bruckart, Benjamin R
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tesfaye, Aklil M
• Application Number:
  US14/992,947
• Publication Number:
  US 20160205424A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,534 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/103 Transmitter-side switching
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23424 involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for inserting or substituting an advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23614 Multiplexing of additional data and video streams arrangements for simultaneous broadcast of plural pieces of information H04H20/28
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4382 Demodulation or channel decoding, e.g. QPSK demodulation analog front ends or means for connecting modulators, demodulators or transceivers to a transmission line H04L27/0002
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4882 for displaying messages, e.g. warnings, reminders arrangements for providing short real-time information to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1895

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for inserting local content of interest in an all digital content delivery network. In one embodiment, the content delivery network comprises a cable television or satellite network, and an RF channel thereof is separated or isolated from an incoming multiplex of all-digital content transmission. The separated RF channel is demodulated to provide a multiplexed transport stream, and packets corresponding to one or more programs from the transport stream are replaced with packets obtained from local compression and encoding of analog programming such as e.g., personal, educational and government (PEG) programming. The inserted programming may also contain closed captioning and emergency data alerts. The resulting encoded transport stream is then re-inserted into the multiplex, modulated, and put back onto the RF channel. In an alternate embodiment, space is reserved within the downstream multiplex so as to avoid having to remove an existing program stream.

Claims

1. Computerized apparatus disposed at a node in a network, said computerized apparatus comprising:

a receiver apparatus configured to receive an incoming digital signal over at least one radio frequency band;

a data input apparatus configured to receive packetized Internet protocol (IP) data;

a data combination apparatus configured to;

(i) combine said packetized IP data with at least a portion of said incoming digital signal to generate an outgoing digital signal, and

(ii) dynamically update a channel map, said update comprising removal of an existing program identifier (PID) associated with said incoming digital signal from said channel map and generation of a PID for said packetized IP data, said generated PID mapped into said channel map; and

a transmission apparatus configured to transmit said outgoing digital signal to a receiver disposed at a premises of a user of said network;

wherein said updated channel map enables a subsequent receiver of said packetized IP data transmitted by said transmission apparatus to access said packetized IP data.

2. The computerized apparatus of claim 1, wherein said incoming digital signal comprises a first multi-program transport stream (MPTS) comprising a plurality of single program transport streams (SPTS).

3. The computerized apparatus of claim 2, further comprising:

a removal apparatus configured to remove at least one of said SPTS from said first MPTS to generate a second MPTS; and

wherein said data combination apparatus is configured to combine said packetized IP data with at least a portion of said incoming digital signal by insertion of said IP packetized data into said second MPTS in place of said removed SPTS.

4. The computerized apparatus of claim 2, further comprising:

a removal apparatus configured to remove a plurality of packets of at least one of said SPTS to create sufficient space to accommodate said packetized IP data within said at least one SPTS; and

wherein said data combination apparatus is configured to combine said packetized IP data with at least a portion of said incoming digital signal by replacement of said removed packets of said at least one SPTS with packets of said packetized IP data.

5. The computerized apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

modulation apparatus configured to modulate said packetized IP data to a modulation scheme used with said incoming digital signal; and

upconversion apparatus configured to upconvert said modulated packetized IP data to a frequency associated with said radio frequency band.

6. The computerized apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

said node is disposed within said network and outside of a core portion thereof;

said network comprises a managed digital content distribution network; and

said outgoing digital signal comprises an IP-over-MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) transport stream.

7. A computerized method for distributing content over a network, the computerized apparatus comprising:

receiving, via a receiver apparatus, first signals over at least one radio frequency band, the first signals comprising digitally rendered content;

receiving, via an input apparatus, second signals;

combining, via a combination apparatus, the second signals with at least a portion of the first signals to generate outgoing digital data, the combining comprising updating a channel map, the updating comprising (i) removing an existing program identifier (PID) associated with the first signals from the channel map and (ii) generating a PID for the second signals, the generated PID mapped into the channel map; and

transmitting, via a transmitter apparatus, the outgoing digital data to a receiver disposed at a premises of a user of the network;

wherein the updated channel map enables a subsequent receiver of the second signals transmitted by the transmission apparatus to access the second signals.

8. The computerized method of claim 7, wherein the receiving the first signals comprises receiving a multi-program transport stream (MPTS), and the removing of the existing PID associated with the first signals from the channel map effects a removal of Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG)-2 packets associated with the existing PID from the MPTS.

9. The computerized method of claim 7, wherein:

the first signals comprise at last one Quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM)-modulated channel filtered from a multiplexed transport stream;

the second signals comprises an analog content stream that has been digitally encoded; and

the combining comprises performing a replacement of the at least one QAM-modulated channel with the digitally encoded analog content stream.

10. The computerized method of claim 7, wherein:

the second signals comprises an analog content stream; and

the combining comprises performing a replacement of at least one radio frequency channel with the digitally encoded analog content stream; and

wherein the method further comprises digitally encoding the received analog content stream prior to the combining.

11. The computerized method of claim 7, wherein:

the first signals comprise a first digital multiplex of a plurality of program streams;

the second signals comprises digitally rendered content; and

the combining comprises performing a replacement of one or more of the plurality of program streams with the digitally rendered content.

12. The computerized method of claim 11, wherein the performing the replacement comprises:

(i) removing the one or more of the plurality of program streams of the first digital multiplex to generate a second digital multiplex, and (ii) inserting the digitally rendered content into the second digital multiplex without de-multiplexing the first digital multiplex.

13. Computer readable apparatus comprising a non-transitory storage medium, the non-transitory medium comprising at least one computer program having a plurality of instructions, the plurality of instructions configured to, when executed on a processing apparatus:

receive, via a first receiver apparatus, one or more first program transport streams over at least a portion of a content delivery network;

receive, via a second receiver apparatus, a content stream;

combine, via a data combination apparatus, the content stream with at least a portion of the one or more first program transport streams to generate a combined digital signal, wherein the combination comprises an update of a channel map, the update comprising removal of existing program identification data associated with at least the portion of the one or more first program transport streams from the channel map and generation of program identification data for the content stream, the generated program identification data mapped into the channel map; and

transmit, via a transmission apparatus, the outgoing combined digital signal to a receiver device disposed at a premises of a user of the content delivery network;

wherein the updated channel map enables the receiver device of the content stream transmitted by the transmission apparatus to access the content stream.

14. The computer readable apparatus of claim 13, wherein the receipt of the content stream comprises receipt of an analog content stream generated by a video apparatus, the video apparatus disposed within the content delivery network and outside of a core portion thereof so as to obviate at least a portion of backhaul infrastructure otherwise required to transmit the analog content stream to the core portion.

15. The computerized readable apparatus of claim 13, wherein:

the content stream comprises a modulated and upconverted digitally formatted content stream; and

the combination further comprises replacement of a program stream of the first program transport stream with the modulated and upconverted digitally formatted content stream.

16. The computerized readable apparatus of claim 15, wherein the plurality of instructions are further configured to, when executed on the processing apparatus:

receive the channel map provided with the first program transport stream, the channel map comprising a plurality of associations between a plurality of channel assignments, radio frequency channel parameters, and program identification data; and

wherein the update comprises a modification of the channel map to replace a first channel assignment associated with the portion of the one or more first program transport streams with a second channel assignment associated with the content stream.

17. The computerized readable apparatus of claim 16, wherein the plurality of instructions are further configured to, when executed on the processing apparatus:

filter out a radio frequency band from the first program transport stream based at least in part on the channel map; and

insert the content stream into the filtered first program transport stream.

18. The computerized readable apparatus of claim 16, wherein the plurality of instructions are further configured to, when executed on the processing apparatus:

remove packets associated with a program stream of the first program transport stream; and

insert the modulated and upconverted digitally formatted content stream into the first program transport stream by replacement of the removed packets after determination that sufficient bandwidth exists to support the replacement.

19. The computerized readable apparatus of claim 13, wherein the receipt of the content stream comprises receipt of an analog content stream, and the plurality of instructions are further configured to, when executed on the processing apparatus:

encode the analog content stream into a digital format using a variable bitrate (VBR) encoding algorithm.

20. The computerized readable apparatus of claim 13, wherein the content stream comprises analog video signals generated at a video apparatus disposed at one or more locations at an edge of the network.