Verizon Patent and Licensing Inc.

James F Di Mattia

Michael Patrick Ruffini

Donald E Smith

Kishore Tallapaneni

Suri B Medapati

Harpal Singh Bassali

Lily F Chen

Niranjan R Samant

Leonard J Andrews

Dale E Veeneman

Michael P Valcourt

Xue Li

A system receives one or more content streams for a program including a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) Live Streaming (HLS) master manifest file for the program, HLS media segments having different bitrate variants, and HLS media manifest files for each of the different bitrate variants. The system encapsulates the HLS master manifest file, the HLS media segments, and the HLS media manifest files into Internet Protocol/User Datagram Protocol (IP/UDP) packets and sends the IP/UDP packets via multicast to video serving offices. Network devices in the video serving offices extract from the IP/UDP packets the HLS master manifest file, the HLS media segments, and the HLS media manifest files. The network devices send to a cache device the HLS media segments and the HLS media manifest files; and forward the IP/UDP packets via multicast to devices in customer premises.

HTTP live streaming delivery over multicast

An exemplary method includes a media content delivery system transmitting a transport stream containing an advertisement channel and a program channel, the program channel carrying a media program stream at a first bit rate, detecting an upcoming advertisement break within the media program stream, inserting, in response to the detecting of the upcoming advertisement break, an advertisement content stream having a second bit rate that is lower than the first bit rate into the program channel to temporally coincide with the advertisement break to free bandwidth in the transport stream during the advertisement break, and inserting an additional advertisement content stream in the advertisement channel, the additional advertisement content stream temporally coinciding with the advertisement break and utilizing at least a portion of the freed bandwidth in the transport stream. Corresponding methods and systems are also disclosed.

Bandwidth management and advertisement insertion in media content delivery systems and methods

A method may include storing a number of programs on a digital video recorder (DVR) and assigning a score or ranking to each of the programs. The method may also include receiving a request to store another program on the DVR and determining whether the DVR has adequate storage space for the other program. The method may further include forwarding, when the DVR does not have adequate storage space for the other program, one of the programs having a lowest score or ranking to a secondary storage located remotely from the DVR.

Home and network video caching

Method, device, and non-transitory storage medium to receive peak viewership parameters that indicate one or more program channels to be modeled; query a device that stores viewership data based on the peak viewership parameters; determine a peak viewership for the one or more program channels; query another device that stores network configuration data pertaining to a program delivery network; obtain channel path information pertaining to the one or more program channels; generate peak channel delivery data based on the channel path information and the peak viewership data; and simulate, based on the peak channel delivery data, resource utilization of the program delivery network stemming from a provisioning of the one or more program channels according to a delivery channel format that is different from another delivery channel format that was used to deliver the one or more program channels to subscribers.

Program modeling tool

An exemplary method includes a media content delivery system transmitting an enhanced media content transport stream that includes at least a single program stream that carries data representative of multiple video content programs. The enhanced media content transport stream further includes data specifying multiple video program identifiers for the multiple video content programs, each of the multiple video program identifiers configured to be used by an access subsystem that receives the enhanced media content transport stream to selectively access a different one of the multiple video content programs. In certain embodiments, the multiple video content programs comprise a first video content program including video data for a main media content program and a second video content program including video data for an advertisement. Corresponding methods and systems are also disclosed.

Enhanced media content transport stream for media content delivery systems and methods

A device receives a request for an advertisement from a set-top box (STB) displaying television content in a high definition format, and provides, to the STB, the advertisement in a standard definition format, where the high definition format includes a resolution higher than a resolution of the standard definition format. The device also determines whether the STB converts the advertisement from the standard definition format to the high definition format. When the STB fails to convert the advertisement from the standard definition format to the high definition format, the device generates a first error code and instructs the STB to continue to display the television content, without interruption, in the high definition format.

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Churchville, MD, United States of America

James F Di Mattia