Method and system of providing customer premise equipment code
AssigneeComcast Cable Holdings, LLC
InventorJoshua A. Seiden
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and system for providing customer premise equipment (CPE) code to one or more pieces of CPE in a cable system having a national code repository (NCR) in communication with a number of headend units, wherein the headend units deliver code received from the NCR to the one or more pieces of CPE.
Claims18
A method of providing customer premise equipment (CPE) code to one or more pieces of CPE in a cable network having a plurality of headend units for delivering signals to a plurality of pieces of CPE, the method comprising:
- storing the CPE code at a national code repository (NCR);
- issuing a transport type inquiry from the NCR to a plurality of the headend units to determine transport types supported therewith;
- generating metadata to support the transport types indicated in responses to the transport type inquiry;
- associating the metadata with the CPE code in order to specify transmission protocols required for the transport types supported by the headend units for delivering the CPE code to the CPE;
- transporting the CPE code and metadata to headend units for delivery to the CPE;
- and
- determining CPE device controller information for the headend units, the CPE device controller information specifying operating parameters for the CPE, and selecting the metadata to support the operating parameters specified in the CPE device controller information.
A system for pro viding customer premise equipment (CPE) code to CPE in a cable network having headend units for delivering signals to a plurality of pieces of CPE, the system comprising:
- a national code repository (NCR) for storing the CPE code and associating metadata with the CPE code, the metadata specifying different transmission protocols required by the headend units for delivering the CPE code to the CPE;
- a local download manager associated with each headend unit, each local download manager being in communication with the NCR to facilitate transporting the CPE code to the CPE associated therewith according to instructions provided in the metadata;
- wherein each local download manager provides the NCR with the transmission requirements of the associated headend unit;
- and
- a CPE device controller at each headend unit for controlling operating parameters of the CPE supported therewith, each CPE device controller issuing CPE device controller information for specifying operating parameters for the one or more pieces of CPE, the operate parameters for use by the NCR in selecting the initiate associated with the CPE code so that the selected metadata supports the operating parameters of the one or more pieces of CPE of the one or more headend units transported the CPE code.
A method of delivering code used to program operations of customer premise equipment (CPE) in a system where cable television headend units transmit the code to the CPE, the method comprising:
- storing different sets of code at a national code repository (NCR), the different sets of code being used to program the CPE according to different CPE programming requirements;
- storing different sets of transmission instructions at the NCR, the transmission instructions being used to instruct the headend units to automatically transmit the code to the CPE according to different CPE transmission requirements and headend transmission capabilities;
- upon determining a need to transmit code to one of the pieces of CPE, selecting an appropriate set of code and transmission instructions from the stored sets of code and transmission instructions, the appropriate set of code and transmission instructions being sufficient to support the programming requirements of the CPE, the transmission requirements of the CPE, and the transmission capabilities of the headend unit used to transmit the code to the CPE;
- and
- transmitting the appropriate set of code and transmission instructions from the NCR to the headend unit used to transmit the code to the CPE, the appropriate set of code and transmission instructions allowing the headend unit to automatically transmit the code to the CPE according to the transmission requirements of the CPE and the transmission capabilities of the headend unit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.