Cisco Technology, Inc.

Srinivasan Santhanam

Balaji Venkat Venkataswami

Mahesh Vittal

Ganesan Velrajan

Hariharan Ananthakrishnan

Suresh Pachiappan

Kumar Thiagarajan

Anand Jayaraman

Pandiarajan Selvaraj

Balaji Venakat Venkataswami

Srinivasa Reddy Kovvuri

A system operable to: receive a request for an application unit from a first device; generating a key for the application unit; look up segment cache indices corresponding to the application unit, according to the key; and determine whether the segment cache indices are available. Where the segment cache indices are available, the system may retrieve a segment cache using the segment cache indices; and then retrieve the application unit using the retrieved segment cache. Otherwise, where the segment cache indices are not available, the system may communicate the request to a second device to receive a response from the second device including the segment indices. Further, the system may receive the response from the second device; store a segment index sequence for the application unit in an application optimizer cache based on the response; and retrieve the application unit via the segment index sequence.

Hybrid caching system

A method and apparatus for transparently transforming a multicast stream is provided. The method includes transforming the multicast stream in a content engine. The multicast stream has a first bandwidth. The content engine receives a request for the multicast stream from a multicast receiver with a second bandwidth availability. Thereafter, the content engine transforms the multicast stream to a multicast stream with a third bandwidth. The third bandwidth is less than or equal to the second bandwidth. The transformed multicast stream is sent to the multicast receiver.

Method and system for transparently transcoding a multicast stream

Methods, systems and apparatus for reducing apparent latency in content-delivery networks are provided. Sources multicast certain 'preview multicast streams' to multiple subscribers. These preview multicast streams provide pre-recorded content of multicast streams. When a subscriber switches to a desired multicast stream, pre-recorded content of the desired multicast stream is reconstructed from a preview multicast stream. Thereafter, the pre-recorded content is played during the setup of the new multicast distribution tree to minimize latency. Once the distribution tree is setup, live content of the desired multicast stream is made available to the subscriber.

Method and system for reducing latency in a multi-channel multicast streaming environment in content-delivery networks

Methods, systems and apparatus are provided for a service provider to stream user-customized information. In an embodiment, the user-customized information includes tickers, advertisements and other types of user-specific information. Users can register for categories that interest them, from an available set of categories. The service provider can then stream the user-customized information on the basis of registration information. A parent service provider streams a main event and gives the service provider control of streaming the user-customized information during still periods of the main event. The service provider can also stream tickers, based on the registered categories, during the main event.

Method and system for streaming user-customized information

Methods and systems have been provided for preempting a secondary service provider from streaming information. The primary service provider sends an Ad-insert control packet for giving control of the streaming to the secondary service provider, during still periods determined on the basis of the Ad-insert control packet. When the primary service provider wants to take back control of streaming from the secondary service provider during the still periods, the primary service provider sends an Ad-insert preempt message. The secondary service provider is then preempted during the periods that are determined on the basis of the Ad-insert preempt message.

Method and system for preempting control of data streaming

Methods, systems and apparatus for billing network usage in a network are provided. Statistics of subscribers' network usage and subscriber information are transmitted from a plurality of First Hop Multicast Routers (FHMRs) to a Net Flow Collection Server (NFCS). The NFCS consolidates the statistics received and subscriber information into a report. Thereafter, a Billing Module (BM) prepares subscribers billing information based on the report and policies configured on the BM. Advantageously, subscribers are charged based on their individual network usage.

Method and system for billing network usage in a network

A method and system for sending a multimedia stream in IP multicast networks are provided. IGMP report data is collected by a plurality of routers. The routers report the IGMP report data to a netflow collection server. The netflow collection server collates the IGMP report data. The collated IGMP report data is forwarded to an encoder coordinator. The encoder coordinator adaptively computes an encoding rate of the multimedia stream. The encoded multimedia stream is sent to a plurality of receivers at the encoding rate.

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Chennai, India

Srinivasan Santhanam