The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 09, 1997
Filed:
Jun. 28, 1995
William Goodman, Collegeville, PA (US);
Kamran Sistanizadeh, Arlington, VA (US);
Michael J Black, Fairfax Station, VA (US);
Bell Atlantic Network Services, Inc., Arlington, VA (US);
Abstract
A distribution network has an architecture that distributes data of any format over a wide serving area. An access subnetwork receives broadband data from a plurality of information providers, preferably at least some of which are received as compressed, digital signals using asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) transport. The access subnetwork combines the broadband data from different information providers, identifies the format of the data and outputs a consolidated MPEG encoded signal to a network interface module of an end user. The network interface module receives the consolidated MPEG encoded signal and converts the consolidated MPEG encoded signal into data packets in accordance with PID values identifying the format of the data. The network interface module performs MPEG and other processing on received packet data streams, and outputs information to a corresponding digital entertainment on the basis of corresponding PID values, resulting in efficient transport of data of any format.