Multicast Data Distribution for Set-Top Box Programming Guides
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Service providers face significant network bandwidth and processing resource consumption when distributing common information to customers in a unicast manner, especially when serving thousands of customers.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a multicast transmission protocol, such as IP multicast, to efficiently utilize network bandwidth and minimize processing resources, where data is encoded to allow receivers to reassemble programming guide data and request missing information via unicast transmission.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If unicast transmission is used to distribute data to customers, then reliable individual delivery is achieved, but network bandwidth and processing resources are significantly consumed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple unicast transmissions into a single multicast transmission by combining data packets from multiple customers into one stream that is simultaneously delivered to multiple recipients, thereby reducing network bandwidth consumption while maintaining delivery reliability
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements a universal multicast transmission mechanism that can serve multiple customers simultaneously with a single transmission infrastructure, making the network resource usage efficient while maintaining individualized delivery reliability through selective group addressing
2Reliability
If unicast transmission is used to distribute data to thousands of customers, then individual data delivery is ensured, but processing resources are significantly expended
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple individual data processing operations into a single multicast processing operation, where the service provider processes and transmits data once to a multicast group rather than processing and transmitting separately to each of thousands of customers, thereby dramatically improving processing resource efficiency
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates a single multicast data stream that is copied and distributed to multiple customer devices simultaneously, eliminating the need for the service provider to create and manage thousands of separate data streams, thus reducing processing overhead
3Loss of energy
If multicast transmission is implemented, then network bandwidth and processing resources are reduced, but data assembly and reliability verification become more complex at the receiver
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the multicast data stream into identifiable packets with sequence numbers and source identifiers, allowing the set-top box to systematically reassemble the data in the correct order and verify completeness, thereby reducing the complexity of data reassembly at the receiver
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements a feedback mechanism where the set-top box can verify received data packets and request retransmission of missing or corrupted packets, simplifying the reassembly process by ensuring data integrity before final assembly
Data Source
AI summary
A device may include a communication interface configured to receive programming information from a service provider multicast over multiple channels. The device may also include logic configured to decode the programming information received over the multiple channels, assemble a programming guide based on the decoded programming information and output the programming guide to an output device for display.