Method and systems for multicast using multiple transport streams

Abstract

A system for delivering interactive program guide (IPG) includes a number of encoding units, at least one transport stream generator, and a session manager. The encoding units encode a number of IPG pages and generate a number of (e.g., guide, video, audio, and data) streams, with each stream being assigned a respective packet identifier (PID). Each transport stream generator receives and multiplexes selected ones of the streams from one or more encoding units into one or more transport streams. The session manager directs each transport stream generator to generate one or more transport streams based on usage. The system may further include a bandwidth manager that monitors usage and reports the usage to the session manager. The encoding units can be operated to encode only once each IPG page to be transmitted. Each transport stream generator can be operated to provide differentiated IPG for the neighborhood being served by the transport stream generator. The number of transport streams generated by each transport stream generator can be dynamically adjusted based on demands from the neighborhood being served by the transport stream generator. Each transport stream generator can be directed to generate an additional transport stream if usage exceeds the capacity of the currently transmitted transport streams.