Aggregate monitoring of internet protocol television (iptv) channel activity across user-based groups of private computer networks

Abstract

A system for aggregate monitoring Internet Protocol television (IPTV) channel activity across user-based groups of private computer networks includes monitoring servers for monitoring private networks. Each private network has a monitoring server operable to receive multicast stream information from at least one switch on the private network, the multicast stream information indicating which ports of the at least one switch are joined to one or more multicast streams. A central server stores information associating users with a group of one or more of the private networks. The central server receives a request from a remote device via the WAN, determines the group of private networks associated with the requesting user, automatically generates a set of IPTV channel activity statistics according to only the statuses collected for each private network in the group associated with the requesting user, and sends the set of statistics to the remote device.