Multi-stream premises apparatus and methods for use in a content delivery network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9743142-B2
Application number	US-7056008-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 19, 2008
Priority date	Feb 19, 2008
Publication date	Aug 22, 2017
Grant date	Aug 22, 2017

Abstract

Apparatus and methods for enhanced tuner efficiency, wherein tuner resources function to permit multiple content streams to be demultiplexed and thus made available for subsequent display. In one embodiment, Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) comprises a resource manager on which a guide application is run to control the tuning of an available tuner resource. This approach obviate reliance on OCAP or other proprietary vendor architecture applications. In another variant, the CPE is adapted to receive RF source data from a wideband tuner, or multiple tuners. The CPE may also be utilized in conjunction with other system configurations designed to enforce a security or other policies within a premises network. The CPE may also employ ‘look ahead’ capabilities to anticipate a QAM stream content before it is received.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A premises network resource management apparatus configured to manage a plurality of tuner resources within a plurality of premises devices, said resource management apparatus comprising:
processing apparatus; and
storage apparatus in data communication with said processing apparatus and comprising at least one computer program, said at least one program comprising a plurality of instructions which are configured to, when executed by said processing apparatus:
receive a request for content from a first one of said plurality of premises devices;
obtain information regarding said plurality of tuner resources of said plurality of premises devices;
determine that no tuner resources of said first one of said plurality of premises devices are available to access said requested content based on said information regarding said plurality of tuner resources of said plurality of premises devices;
in response to said determination that no tuner resources of said first one of said plurality of premises devices are available to access said requested content, identify, from among said plurality of tuner resources of said plurality of premises devices based on said information regarding said plurality of tuner resources, a tuner resource of a second one of said plurality of premises devices available to access said requested content;
maintain a content routing table, said content routing table comprising information at least relating to a plurality of programs and respective routing thereof;
update said content routing table to reflect routing of said requested content to said available tuner resource of said second one of said plurality of premises devices;
cause said available tuner resource of said second one of said plurality of premises devices to tune to said requested content; and
provide said requested content to said first one of said plurality of premises devices.

2. The resource management apparatus of claim 1 , wherein said information comprises status information comprising at least one of:
(i) a current frequency to which at least one of said plurality of tuner resources is currently tuned;
(ii) programs that are available on said current frequency; or
(iii) program identifications associated with said programs available on said current frequency.

3. The resource management apparatus of claim 1 , wherein said causation of said available tuner resource of said second one of said plurality of premises devices to tune to said requested content, and said provision of said requested content to said first one of said plurality of premises devices comprise:
reservation of said available tuner resource of said second one of said plurality of premises devices; and
causation of said available tuner resource of said second one of said plurality of premises devices to distribute a first program stream comprising said requested content to said first one of said plurality of premises devices in accordance with said content routing table.

4. The resource management apparatus of claim 3 , wherein said plurality of instructions are further configured to, when executed, direct said available tuner resource of said second one of said plurality of premises devices to distribute a second program stream different from said first program stream to a third one of said plurality of premises devices concurrently with said distribution of said first stream in accordance with said content routing table.

5. The resource management apparatus of claim 1 , wherein said at least one computer program comprises an object-oriented computer program.

6. The resource management apparatus of claim 5 , further comprising
an interface configured to communicate data or signals between said plurality of tuner resources and said processing apparatus.

7. The resource management apparatus of claim 6 , wherein said plurality of tuner resources comprise a plurality of radio frequency (RF) tuners each configured to tune to and receive at least one quadrature amplitude modulated (QAM) signal.

8. The resource management apparatus of claim 7 , further comprising at least one demodulator, said at least one demodulator configured to demodulate said at least one QAM signal;
wherein said at least one demodulator is in communication with said processing apparatus and is at least partly controllable thereby.

9. The resource management apparatus of claim 8 , wherein said resource management apparatus is further configured to manage said plurality of tuner resources in accordance with a network operator-specified policy that is communicated to said resource management apparatus over a network.

10. The resource management apparatus of claim 1 , wherein said resource management apparatus is configured to manage said tuner resources in accordance with a user-specified policy.

11. The resource management apparatus of claim 1 , wherein said plurality of tuner resources comprise at least one out-of-band (OOB) tuner, and said resource management apparatus is configured to control said at least one OOB tuner for said transmission of said OOB communication signals to said headend device.

12. The resource management apparatus of claim 11 , wherein said at least one OOB tuner is disposed on a second platform physically separate from a first platform of said resource management apparatus.

13. The resource management apparatus of claim 12 , wherein said second platform comprises a digital video recorder, and said first platform comprises a set top box or receiver.

14. The resource management apparatus of claim 1 , wherein said plurality of instructions are further configured to, when executed, analyze said content routing table to implement one or more rules.

15. The resource management apparatus of claim 14 , wherein said one or more rules are utilized to identify particular content which can be selectively routed to only certain ones of said plurality of premises devices, and wherein said identification is based at least in part on a rating associated with said particular content.

16. The resource management apparatus of claim 14 , wherein said one or more rules are utilized to identify, based on at least one prescribed condition associated with said first one of said plurality of premises devices, whether to decrypt said requested content, and wherein said at least one prescribed condition comprises a public/private key exchange.

17. An apparatus configured to manage a plurality of tuner resources of a plurality of client devices in a premises network, said apparatus comprising:
a first interface configured to receive, over said premises network, information regarding said plurality of tuner resources of said plurality of client devices, each of said tuner resources being associated with an individual one of said plurality of client devices;
a first tuner resource configured to receive at least one multiplexed transport stream from a content delivery network;
a demultiplexer configured to demultiplex a plurality of program streams from said at least one multiplexed transport stream; and
a processor apparatus configured to:
control distribution of said plurality of program streams to respective ones of said plurality of client devices in communication with said apparatus according to a security policy configured to identify, based on a security level associated with each of said ones of said plurality of client devices, whether to distribute said plurality of program streams to said respective ones of said client devices as decrypted program streams or encrypted program streams;
according to said identificat

Assignees

• Cholas Chris
• Helms William L
• Sarosi George W
• Time Warner Cable Entpr Llc

Inventors

• Cholas Chris
• Helms William L
• Sarosi George W

Classifications

• H04N21/4263

  involving specific tuning arrangements, e.g. two tuners · CPC title

• H04N5/4401

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04N5/50

  Tuning indicators; Automatic tuning control · CPC title

• H04N21/47214 Primary

  for content reservation or setting reminders; for requesting event notification, e.g. of sport results or stock market (stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; notification of incoming messages in packet switching networks H04L51/224) · CPC title

• H04N21/43615

  Interfacing a Home Network, e.g. for connecting the client to a plurality of peripherals (home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] data switching networks H04L12/2805) · CPC title