Cisco Technology, Inc.

Michael Pereira

Fang Wu

Wen-hsiung Chen

Jack Chi Cham

John Albert Toebes

Philip Clifford Jacobs

Mark John Baugher

Gary Fujen Cheng

A system and a method are disclosed for detecting a multicast stream fault condition at a variety of points within a digital broadcast video distribution system. In addition, a method of seamless switchover from a primary to a redundant multicast stream is provided.

Fault tolerance and synchronous failover for broadcast video across the network

A method and apparatus for mixing first and second video content portions is described. The method may comprise overlapping at least one frame of a first content portion comprising multiple frames with at least one frame of a second content portion comprising multiple frames to produce a composite video content. At least one reference frame comprising a frame of the first or second content portion prior to the overlapping may be designated. The composite video content and the reference frame may then be transmitted, for example, to a client device. The client device may use the reference frame to at least reduce an effect of the overlapping.

Mixing of video content

Particular embodiments generally relate to video insertion information insertion in a compressed bitstream. In one embodiment, a compressed bitstream of data is received. Video insertion information to be added to the bitstream is then determined. One or more macroblocks out of a plurality of macroblocks are determined in the compressed bitstream. The macroblocks are determined in the compressed domain and not the spatial domain. Information is selectively inserted for the video insertion information for the determined one or more macroblocks in the compressed bitstream. For example, encoded macroblocks for the video insertion information may replace the determined one or more macroblocks. Also, the one or more macroblocks may be decoded and information for the video insertion information is added to the decoded one or more macroblocks, and then the one or more macroblocks are re-encoded with the information. The re-encoded macroblocks may then replace the determined one or more macroblocks in the compressed bitstream.

Video insertion information insertion in a compressed bitstream

In a packet based multicast video streaming network, a method for minimizing delay in displaying video on a TV set in response to a viewer changing the channel is disclosed. For each live multicast video stream, one or more reference frames and corresponding compressed frames are temporarily stored in a memory in anticipation of the viewer switching to that particular program. When the viewer changes channels, the previously stored reference and compressed frames are immediately read from the memory and rendered for display on the TV. This eliminates the need to wait for the next available reference frame. In other words, this eliminates a temporary blank TV screen each time the channel is changed. Certain compressed frames are dropped and blank frames can be inserted in order to catch up to and synchronize with the live video broadcast. The particular frames to be dropped and the number of blank frames to be inserted is a function of the bandwidth limitation imposed by the last mile of the network.

Method and apparatus for immediate display of multicast IPTV over a bandwidth constrained network

Method of fault tolerance and synchronous failover for broadcast video across the network

An apparatus, e.g., in a network edge device, a method, and a software program product for synchronizing two or more redundant media streams, e.g., MPEG video streams. The method includes receiving network packets encapsulating redundant media streams representing the same media program, buffering the received streams, learning a program identifier for the media program, searching the packets of the redundant streams for synchronization points defined by a plurality of parameters of stream packets, synchronizing the redundant streams based on the comparison, and providing a single stream as an output stream.

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Milpitas, CA, United States of America

Michael Pereira