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:
Dec. 01, 2009
Filed:
Apr. 30, 2001
James A. Bisher, Jr., Lawrenceville, GA (US);
Neil B. Buchen, Sugar Hill, GA (US);
Thomas C. Wilson, Duluth, GA (US);
James A. Bisher, Jr., Lawrenceville, GA (US);
Neil B. Buchen, Sugar Hill, GA (US);
Thomas C. Wilson, Duluth, GA (US);
Scientific- Atlanta, Inc., Lawrenceville, GA (US);
Abstract
An apparatus in a digital network receives digital packets, such as MPEG packets, included in at least one input transport stream and outputs a plurality of modulated output transport streams. The apparatus determines whether the input transport streams include packets that are for multicasting from a plurality of the modulators included within the apparatus. The apparatus also determines whether the input transport streams include unicast packets that are transmitted from only one of the output modulators of the apparatus. The apparatus identifies the unicast and multicast packets of the input transport streams and associates a modulator for each unicast packet. The associated modulator of a unicast packet is the particular modulator from which the packet is modulated and transmitted. The apparatus also associates a plurality of modulators with each multicast packet, wherein the associated plurality of modulators are the modulators from which the multicast packet is transmitted.