US 2013/0110964 A1 · DELIVERING MULTIMEDIA SERVICES

Abstract

Disclosed is a scalable, hierarchical, distributed network architecture and processes for the delivery of high-performance, end-to-end online multimedia services, including Internet services such as World Wide Web access. The network architecture connects a high-speed private backbone to multiple network access points of the Internet, to a network operation center, to a back office system, and to multiple regional servers in regional data centers. Each of the regional servers connects to several caching servers in modified head-ends, which in turn connect via fiber optics to many neighborhood nodes. Finally, each node connects via coaxial cable to multiple end-user systems. The processes include those for replicating and caching frequently-accessed content, and multicasting content customized per region or locality.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A system for delivery of multimedia services comprising:

at least two regional servers, each coupled to a high-speed network backbone carrying content, a first regional server configured to customize content received from a content provider to form a first version of multicast content, a second regional server configured to customize content received from the content provider to form a second version of multicast content, and the first and second regional servers configured to provide a second level of caching for the content received from the content provider;
and
a plurality of caching servers, including a first caching server coupled to the first regional server and a second caching server coupled to the second regional server, each caching server configured to receive and cache the customized multicast content received from the coupled regional server responsive to receiving a request from an end-user system for the customized multicast content, and to provide the customized multicast content formed by the coupled regional server to the requesting end-user system.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application

13/722,989Filed 20 Dec 2012

Priority

5 Mar 1997

Published

2 May 2013

Term ends

Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification24 codes

H04L 12/1845
For broadcast or conference , e.g. multicast: broadcast or multicast in a specific location, e.g. geocast
G06F 15/167
Interprocessor communication: using a common memory, e.g. mailbox
H04L 12/1854
For broadcast or conference , e.g. multicast: with non-centralised forwarding system, e.g. chaincast
H04L 12/2801
Characterised by path configuration, e.g. LAN [Local Area Networks] or WAN [Wide Area Networks]: broadband local area networks

Family

Application08/811,586Continuation in part · filed 5 Mar 1997

Application09/427,778Continuation · filed 26 Oct 1999

Application10/777,912Continuation · filed 11 Feb 2004

Application11/735,925Continuation · filed 16 Apr 2007

Application12/413,446Continuation · filed 27 Mar 2009

Application12/901,194Continuation · filed 8 Oct 2010

Application13/333,958Continuation · filed 21 Dec 2011

Application13/722,989Continuation

Application09/427,778Continuation in part

US 2004/0205339 A1Published application

US 2007/0183441 A1Published application