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. 24, 2013
Filed:
Mar. 30, 2009
Sangeeta Ramakrishnan, San Jose, CA (US);
Prasanna Mucharikar, San Jose, CA (US);
Gitesh Shah, San Jose, CA (US);
Harshavardhan Parandekar, San Jose, CA (US);
Tung-fai Chan, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Sangeeta Ramakrishnan, San Jose, CA (US);
Prasanna Mucharikar, San Jose, CA (US);
Gitesh Shah, San Jose, CA (US);
Harshavardhan Parandekar, San Jose, CA (US);
Tung-Fai Chan, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Cisco Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
Methods and apparatus are disclosed for offering broadcast IPTV solutions over cable (HFC networks). Rather than bypass the CMTS, a reduced number of downstream ports are utilized for video streams. Each input video stream is streamed to a multicast group address. In one embodiment, several RF channels are configured so that they are RF spanned across all the Fibernodes in the CMTS service area. In an embodiment, an STB sends a service request for a desired video stream using an IGMP request, and the CMTS responds by issuing a DBC request to tune the corresponding CM to the RF channel that is carrying the requested stream. Preferably, the CMTS ports that carry the static multicast streams are RF spanned across all the Fibernodes, or a selected subset.