Digital television channel trending

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10368111-B2
Application number	US-201514868027-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 28, 2015
Priority date	Jun 25, 2008
Publication date	Jul 30, 2019
Grant date	Jul 30, 2019

Abstract

Channel trending, including determining a number of viewers watching a multimedia program, is achieved in a digital television network. Cached multimedia frames that correspond to portions of the multimedia program are maintained, for example, on a device located on an edge (i.e., in a network edge device) of the digital television network. In response to a request from a client device (e.g., a set-top box) to receive the multimedia program, cached multimedia frames are fed from the edge device to the client device. Upon a seamless transfer or handoff resulting in a simulcast replicator or multicast replicator providing further portions of the multimedia program, a signal (e.g., a simple network management protocol TRAP statement) is sent to a viewership statistic server for incrementing a counter.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
maintaining a first portion of a multimedia program in a multimedia cache of a network edge device;
receiving a multicast join request associated with:
a set-top box; and
the multimedia program;

sending a first portion of the multimedia program to the set-top box from the multimedia cache of the network edge device, wherein sending the first portion comprises sending the first portion to the set-top box at an accelerated rate, wherein the accelerated rate is greater than a normal playback rate for the multimedia program;
directing the set-top box to a multicast replicator for a second portion of the multimedia program;
receiving an indication of the set-top box receiving the second portion;
causing a viewership statistic server to increment a particular counter indicative of a number of set-top boxes tuned to the multimedia program, wherein causing the viewership statistic server to increment the particular counter includes:
detecting a handoff, wherein the handoff comprises a transition of a source of the multimedia program from the network edge device to the multicast replicator;
responsive to detecting the handoff from the network edge device to the multicast replicator, causing a viewership statistic server to increment a particular counter indicative of a number of set-top boxes tuned to the multimedia program;
recording time-stamped information indicative of the set-top box receiving the second portion; and
sending the time-stamped information to a viewership statistic data.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein sending the time stamped information comprising sending the time-stamped information at an off-peak time.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the set-top box includes a network management agent configured to automatically generate a network management message responsive to the multicast join request.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the multicast join request is associated with a channel change.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein the multicast join request is associated with a request to record the-multimedia program.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
responsive to receiving an indication that the set-top box is no longer receiving the multimedia program, decrementing the particular counter.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the indication that the set-top box is no longer receiving the multimedia program comprises a timeout associated with the set-top box.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the indication that the set-top box is no longer receiving the multimedia program comprises a further request from the set-top box to receive a second multimedia program.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
incrementing a second counter indicative of a number of viewers receiving the second multimedia program; and
decrementing the particular counter.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: decrementing the particular counter, wherein the network edge device comprises a network device located in either a central office or a digital subscriber line access multiplexer.

11. A set-top box, comprising:
a processor;
a non-transitory computer readable medium, accessible to the processor, including processor executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
sending a multicast join request associated with a particular multimedia program;
receiving a first portion of the multimedia program from a cache of a network edge device;
receiving a second portion of the multimedia program from a multicast replicator;
detecting a handoff, wherein the handoff comprises a transition of a source of the multimedia program from the network edge device to the multicast replicator;
responsive to detecting the handoff from the network edge device to the multicast replicator, causing a viewership statistic server to increment a particular counter indicative of a number of set-top boxes tuned to the multimedia program; and
recording time-stamped information indicative of receiving the second portion.

12. The set-top box of claim 11 , wherein the multicast join request is associated with a record program request.

13. The set-top box of claim 11 , wherein the multicast join request associated with a channel change request.

14. The set-top box of claim 13 , wherein the set-top box includes a channel change agent configured to report channel change information via simple network management protocol traps generated in response to the multicast join request.

15. A non-transitory tangible computer readable medium including stored, processor executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
sending a multicast join request associated with a particular multimedia program;
receiving a first portion of the multimedia program from a cache of a network edge device;
receiving a second portion of the multimedia program from a multicast replicator;
detecting a handoff, wherein the handoff comprises a transition of a source of the multimedia program from the network edge device to the multicast replicator;
responsive to detecting the handoff from the network edge device to the viewership statistic server, causing a viewership statistic server to increment a particular counter indicative of a number of set-top boxes tuned to the multimedia program; and
recording time-stamped information indicative of receiving the second portion.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the multicast join request is associated with a channel change request.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15 , wherein operations include network management agent instructions configured to automatically generate a network management message responsive to the multicast join request.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17 , wherein the network management agent comprises a channel change agent configured to automatically generate the network management message responsive to a channel change request.

Assignees

• At & T Ip I Lp

Inventors

• Randolph Donald Lewis
• Griner Bradley C
• Zimmerman Jeffrey Walter

Classifications

• H04N21/812

  involving advertisement data (advertising per se G06Q30/02) · CPC title

• H04N21/21815

  comprising local storage units · CPC title

• H04N21/47202

  for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand · CPC title

• H04N21/44204

  Monitoring of content usage, e.g. the number of times a movie has been viewed, copied or the amount which has been watched (monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; protecting generic digital content where the protection is independent of the precise nature of the content G06F21/10; arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services in broadcast systems H04H60/31) · CPC title

• H04N21/2183

  Cache memory {(caches in web servers or browsers G06F16/9574; intermediate storage and caching in data networks H04L67/568)} · CPC title