Cisco Technology, Inc.

Synamedia Limited

Mahesh Viveganandhan

Scott C Labrozzi

Warren Scott Wainner

Carol Etta Iturralde

Eric Colin Friedrich

Ming Tan

Dan Li

Matthew Francis Caulfield

Dipak Punnoran Koroth

Martin Andrew Ostrowski

William C VerSteeg

Clint Earl Ricker

Hoi-tauw Jozef Chou

Vivek Kansal

Gowdish Kumaraswamy

Gary M Springer

James M Hill

Adrian P Phillips

In one embodiment, a method, system and apparatus are described, for uniquely storing, in a memory, for each one user among a plurality of users which recorded a content item, at least one segment of the recorded content item, generating metadata at a metadata generator, the metadata generator configured to associate, for one user among the plurality of users, the at least one segment of the recorded content item recorded by the one user, the metadata including a bitmap uniquely identifying the one user, and determining, at a processor, for each one user of the plurality of users, at least one offset value indicating at least one starting point for the at least one segment of the recorded content item for the one user, the at least one segment of the one user being disposed in a media sequence including a plurality of segments of the content item for different users of the users that recorded the content item, the at least one offset value being determined based, at least, on the bitmap uniquely identifying the one user and a byte size of the at least one segment of the recorded content item. Related methods, systems and apparatuses are also described.

Method and system for segment based recording

A method is provided in one example embodiment and includes generating a key associated with a virtual asset associated with content to be provided to a client device, where the key indicates at least one parameter for accessing the content; generating the virtual asset; receiving a request for the content; identifying a format being requested for the content; using the virtual asset to identify common format content to be retrieved and to identify the key; using the key to retrieve the common format content; and transforming the common format content such that it can be delivered to the client device in the format that was requested.

Virtual assets for on-demand content generation

A slave resource router may receive a client request. The slave resource router may be the nearest representation of an Anycast IP address in a network to a client sending the client request in the network. The slave resource router may then determine that the slave resource router has been authorized to cache content for a delivery service corresponding to the client request. Next, the slave resource router may determine that content corresponding to the client request is cached locally in a blind cache. Then the slave resource router may provide the client with the content from the blind cache.

Content distributed through blind-cache instantiation

A method is provided in one example and includes receiving media content including timed metadata, generating a common format asset including the timed metadata and a timed metadata index including at least one reference point corresponding to the common format asset. Each reference point includes state context information of the timed metadata at a particular instance of time. The method may further include receiving a request for the timed metadata from a particular client device, and retrieving a determined amount of the timed metadata from the common format asset using the timed metadata index. In a particular example, the determined amount of the timed metadata is an amount sufficient to display a current timed metadata context corresponding to the request.

On-demand encapsulating of timed metadata in a network environment

In some embodiments, a request for a content object may be received as a data packet. Upon determining that the content object is not cached, an element of the data packet may be modified and the modified data packet may be forwarded toward a content provider of the content object.

Distributed web object identification for web caching

Content distribution through blind-cache instantiation

Multi-tier recording to enable, for example, seek-back unique copy recording may be provided. First, content may be recorded to a time-shift buffer. Recording instructions may be received and a virtual recorder corresponding to a user may be instantiated. Next, content from the time-shift buffer may be obtained according to the received recording instructions. Then the obtained content may be saved to the instantiated virtual recorder.

Multi-tier recorder to enable seek-back unique copy recording

In one embodiment, redundancy elimination for web caching may be provided. Upon receiving a request for a content object, a determination of whether the content object is cached may be made. In response to determining that the content object is not cached, the requested content object may be retrieved and, if the content object is associated with an aggregate popularity exceeding a caching threshold, the content object may be cached before providing the requested content object.

Redundancy elimination for web caching

A method is provided in one example embodiment that includes receiving a request for a linear media service and determining that the linear media service is not available. An upstream server is provided with start-up content that is streamed in response to the linear media service not being available. The method also includes switching to the linear media service if the linear media service becomes available. In certain example implementations, the upstream server is an origin server, a residential gateway, an edge cache, an endpoint, etc.

Growing community of inventors

Cupertino, CA, United States of America

Mahesh Viveganandhan