US 5,673,264 A · Image information distribution system

Abstract

An image information distribution system is provided which responds to a control signal from subscribers at high speed by efficiently using transmission lines. Further, an image information distribution system is provided which shortens the wait time caused by shortage of an image information source if a number of subscribers access the same image information. Image information is transmitted between an image information providing node and an image information distribution node at the ratio of 1:1 via ATM connection corresponding to the type of image information and is distributed from the image information distribution node to each subscriber accommodation node at the ratio of 1:N via ATM connection. Each subscriber accommodation node is provided with a cell filter for extracting only an ATM cell containing the image information requested by the subscriber for selecting only necessary information out of the image information distributed to the subscriber accommodation node and transmitting it to customer premises equipment of the subscriber. The image information providing node, the image information distributing node is provided with an image information memory corresponding to ATM connection for storing image information or the subscriber accommodation node.

Claims9

Dependent claims

An image information distribution system comprising an image information providing node including an image information source;

and a plurality of subscriber accommodation nodes for connecting said image information providing node to customer premises equipment of subscribers which receive image information through transmission lines in an asynchronous transfer mode,
wherein said image information providing node comprises:
setting means for setting asynchronous transfer mode virtual paths each of which corresponds to types of image information providing services on said transmission lines, and for setting asynchronous transfer mode virtual channels each of which corresponds to the image information on said transmission lines, and
distributing means for distributing the image information to said plurality of subscriber accommodation nodes through the asynchronous transfer mode virtual paths corresponding to the image information providing services and the asynchronous transfer mode virtual channels corresponding to the image information;
and
wherein each of said subscriber accommodation nodes comprises:
a filter for extracting a cell of one of the asynchronous transfer mode virtual paths and one of the asynchronous transfer mode virtual channels transmitting the image information requested by one of the subscribers, and
transferring means for transferring the image information to the customer premises equipment of the subscriber who requests the image information, using the cell extracted by said filter.

5 more elements

An image information distribution system comprising an image information providing node including an image information source, a plurality of subscriber accommodation nodes for connecting said image information providing node to customer premises equipment of subscribers which receive image information through transmission lines in an asynchronous transfer mode;

and an image information distributing node for distributing the image information transferred from said image information providing node to said plurality of subscriber accommodation nodes, wherein
said image information providing node transfers the image information to said image information distributing node by setting first asynchronous transfer mode virtual paths and first asynchronous transfer mode virtual channels on said transmission lines with point-to-point connection, each of said first asynchronous transfer mode virtual paths corresponding to each of types of image information providing services and each of said first asynchronous transfer mode virtual channels corresponding to each of the image information;
said image information distributing node distributes the image information transferred from said image information providing node to said plurality of subscriber accommodation nodes by setting second asynchronous transfer mode virtual paths and second asynchronous transfer mode virtual channels on said transmission lines with point-to-multipoint connection, each of said second asynchronous transfer mode virtual paths corresponding to each of types of image information providing services and each of said second asynchronous transfer mode virtual channels corresponding to each of the image information;
and
each of said plurality of subscriber accommodation nodes comprises:
a filter for extracting a cell of one of the second asynchronous transfer mode virtual paths and one of the second asynchronous transfer mode virtual channels transferring the image information requested by one of the subscribers;
and
transferring means for transferring the image information to the customer premise's equipment of the subscriber who requests the image information, using the cell extracted by said filter.

5 more elements

An image information distribution system comprising an image information providing node including an image information source, a subscriber accommodation node for connecting said image information providing node to customer premises equipments of subscribers which receives image information through a transmission line in an asynchronous transfer mode, and an image information distributing node for distributing the image information transferred from said image information providing node to said subscriber accommodation node;

wherein
one of said image information providing node, said subscriber accommodation node and said image information distributing node comprises:
a memory for storing the image information corresponding each of the subscribers or each of types of the image information;
first transferring means for transferring the image information requested by one of the subscribers from said image information source to said memory, when the subscriber requests to send the image information;
and
second transferring means for transferring the image information by setting up an asynchronous transfer mode path between said memory and one of the customer premises equipments of the subscriber who requests to send the image information.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Image information distribution system

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Image information distribution system

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Abstract

Claims9