Cisco Technology, Inc.

Xiaomei Liu

Sangeeta Ramakrishnan

John Pickens

Bruce Albert Thompson

John T Chapman

Fang Wu

Alon Shlomo Bernstein

Yi Tong Tse

Dayin Gou

Gil C Cruz

Ke Shen

Swaminatha Vasudevan

Satish Bommareddy

Harsh Parandekar

Madhavi Kadiyala

Ashok Bhaskar

Off-path admission control signaling in the presence of a network address translation (NAT) device may be provided. In response to a request for a content asset, a placeholder classifier may be created. The placeholder classifier may be used to allocate resources for providing the content asset to the client from a content server. The content server may communicate with the client, traversing the NAT device to identify a destination address and port for the client to which the content will be provided. The placeholder classifier may then be updated with the destination address and port.

IPTV off-path admission control signaling in the presence of network address translation

A method is described that includes receiving a program request from a transceiver that includes a program request to receive a video program at the transceiver. The method also includes determining an amount of bandwidth on a channel available to the transceiver. The method further includes determining whether to provide a unicast stream or a multicast stream to deliver the requested video program to the transceiver in response to the program request based on a result obtained after implementing a policy control function that considers an amount of bandwidth on the channel to the transceiver. The method further includes formatting and selecting an incoming media stream in accordance with the result of the policy control function to provide a corresponding formatted unicast or multicast media stream that includes video data for the requested video program. The method further includes outputting the associated formatted unicast or multicast media stream on the channel.

Policy control over switched delivery networks

A method of delivering a variable bit rate (VBR) media stream in near real time includes identifying a selected media asset to be streamed to a media receiver, receiving an available access bandwidth at which the media receiver can receive data, and initiating a session setup for delivery of the selected media asset. The method further includes calculating a delay in decoding a media stream associated with the selected media asset at the media receiver based on the available access bandwidth, and a calculated required minimum transmission rate of a VBR media stream representative of the selected media asset. The method further includes transmitting the selected media asset at the required minimum transmission rate of the VBR media stream and providing the calculated delay to the media receiver such that the media receiver begins decoding the media stream in accordance with the calculated delay.

Near real time delivery of variable bit rate media streams

A technique for managing the distribution of digital video content to multiple end-user devices is disclosed. The technique involves statistically multiplexing multiple VBR encoded video streams into an access channel, such as a data over cable service interface specifications (DOCSIS) bonded group, and utilizing quality of service capabilities of an edge device, such as a cable modem termination system (CMTS) or an edge quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) device, to buffer and schedule IP packets, which carry the VBR encoded video streams, so that packets are not dropped during periods of congestion. Utilizing the quality of service capabilities of an edge device makes it possible to statistically multiplex VBR encoded video streams in a narrowcast application such as Video on Demand (VOD) or Switched Digital Video (SDV) while eliminating the need for process intensive transrating/transcoding operations.

Distributing digital video content to multiple end-user devices

In one embodiment, a method is described that includes receiving a conditioned bitstream that includes a digital insertion location and primary network packets that contain compressed video data. The digital insertion location includes replaceable network packets. The method also includes receiving a second bitstream that includes replacement compressed video data. The method also includes determining a location of the digital insertion location. The method further includes adjusting the bitrate of the replacement compressed video data to create adjusted replacement compressed video data. The method further includes providing timestamp information with the replacement compressed video data. The method additionally includes packetizing the adjusted replacement compressed video data and timestamp information into replacement network packets. The method further includes combining the replacement network packets into the digital insertion location in the conditioned bitstream at the network packet level without depacketizing or decompressing the compressed video data in the primary network packets.

Expedited splicing of video streams

A technique for supporting over-the-top video-on-demand separates metadata ingest and real content ingest such that navigation needs only the metadata ingest to have been completed. The real content ingest can occur later if the navigation results in the real content being selected and if the selected content has not been ingested already. Additionally, content identifiers with limited range are used over and over to identify a practically unlimited range of available over-the-top content by mapping virtual content identifiers to dynamic content. The content metadata and real content ingest are synchronized on a video-on-demand system using the dynamically allocated content identifiers. Playlists can be virtualized with a logical content identifier which maps to a list of virtual content identifiers. Existing video-on-demand infrastructures can simultaneously support both static and dynamic content with preexisting video-on-demand back offices and video-on-demand clients.

Dynamic video-on-demand navigation and on demand ingest

In one embodiment, a processing device is coupled between at least one content source and at least one subscriber device within an Internet Protocol television (IPTV) system in order to receive a plurality of service flows from the at least one content source and to process multicast service flow requests from the at least one subscriber device. The processing device includes a map module to map a service flow from a content source to a multicast service flow based on a multicast service flow request from a particular subscriber device and a unicast module to assign a unique identifier to the mapped multicast service flow to convert the mapped multicast service flow to a unicast delivery of the mapped multicast service flow to the particular subscriber device.

Switched unicast in an internet protocol television environment

The present invention relates generally to a system for managing bandwidth usage in a content delivery system such as a Video on Demand (VOD) network. Specifically, an Edge Resource Manager (ERM) makes use of a number of policies to optimally select a transmission device such as a Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) device. The policies aid in providing efficient use of the transmission devices particularly when a number of different transmission rates for different media are employed.

System and method for edge resource management

A resource reservation and admission control scheme uses pseudowires to reserve bandwidth over a layer-2 and/or layer-3 network. The pseudowires are associated with ports on different network processing devices. During a resource reservation and admission control session, the physical links used by the pseudowire are selected and reserved to more effectively allocate network bandwidth. The negotiated pseudowire is then used to transport content for a communication session over the network. In one example application, the resource reservation and admission control scheme is used during a Downstream External PHY Interface (DEPI) session for pseudowires established between a Modular Cable Modem Termination System (M-CMTS) Core and an Edge Quadrature Amplitude Modulation Interface (EQAM) device. However, the reservation protocol can be used in any application that needs to reserve bandwidth over an Internet Protocol (IP) network.

Resource reservation and admission control for IP network

The present invention addresses the issue of jitter and clock drifting in streaming media applications. The present invention utilizes the Real Time Transaction Protocol (RTP) to embed MPEG packets within RTP packets in a Multiple Program Transport Stream (MPTS). Each MPEG packet in an MPTS stream is tagged at a gateway with: an arrival timestamp, a per-flow index and internal index to identify where the packet resides in an RTP packet and within a stream. After demultiplexing, this information is utilized in conjunction with the sending timestamp of each RTP packet to create a sending time for each MPEG packet to aid in the reduction of jitter and clock drifting.

Removing jitter in RTP streaming media streams

Described herein are systems and methods for multiplexing and transmitting video data. The systems and methods use excess bandwidth in a channel available after meeting minimum transmission requirements for all bitstreams. A network device of the invention flexibly allocates this available bandwidth to minimize further rate reduction. More specifically, the network device periodically determines the available bandwidth, and divides the available bandwidth among multiple incoming bitstreams being multiplexed in order to increase downstream decoder buffer levels. By maintaining increased decoder buffer levels, future rate reduction of the video data may be avoided or applied to a lesser degree. Minimizing rate reduction in this manner improves bandwidth usage efficiency, and thus improves video data transmission and end-user output video quality.

Efficient available bandwidth usage in transmission of compressed video data

Described herein are data transmission systems and methods that employ flexible memory usage techniques. The techniques allocate memory to include a plurality of block pools, where each block pool includes a set of blocks having a memory size common to the block pool. The number of block pools and common memory size for each may be determined according to the current transmission demands for the bit streams and channels being serviced. A processor for the network device then allocates data from multiple bit streams into a block in one of the block pools based on the memory requirements for the incoming data. The number of blocks may also be varied based on changing transmission demands.

Flexible memory allocation for data transmission

Methods and apparatus are provided for converting video packets into IP packets. Video packets including null packets associated with timing information are received at a network entity coupling a video network to an IP network. Video packets are selectively combined into IP packets to allow transmission of video data onto the IP network in an efficient and effective manner. Null packets used to maintain timing information in the video network are removed. Mechanisms are provided for maintaining timing information even without transmitting extraneous packets.

Methods and apparatus for transmitting video streams on a packet network

The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for quantitatively measuring the performance of a statistical remultiplexer. The methods of the present invention provide for generation of evaluation metrics associated with at least one of amount of bit rate reduction performed by the statistical remultiplexer, change in video quality attributable to the statistical remultiplexer, wasted output bandwidth by the statistical remultiplexer, decoder buffer level fullness, bit rate reduction characteristics of the statistical remultiplexer, and time delay attributable to the statistical remultiplexer. The methods of the present invention may be implemented by an evaluator that may be incorporated into a statistical remultiplexer or may be separate from and connectable to a statistical remultiplexer.

Growing community of inventors

San Jose, CA, United States of America

Xiaomei Liu