QUALITY OF SERVICE FOR DISTRIBUTION OF CONTENT TO NETWORK DEVICES

摘要

A gateway device configured to receive IP video content may select and use transmission methods that maintain a certain quality of service for delivering the content. A transmission method may be selected based on a network to which the client device is connected. The gateway device may select a network through which the content is to be delivered depending on a variety of factors including bandwidth availability, client compatibility, quality of service provided and the like. A gateway device may further be configured to convert multicast transmissions to unicast, to provide dynamic storage of content for pre-positioning and other purposes and/or to provide other functions.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
receiving, at a gateway device, a content item addressed to a client device; determining, by the gateway device, a protocol in which the content item is formatted; in response to determining that the content item is not formatted according to Internet Protocol (IP), re-formatting, by the gateway device, the content item into one or more IP packets; determining whether the content item corresponds to a specified content media type; in response to determining that the content item corresponds to the specified content media type, selecting a network for transmitting the content item to the client device based on quality of service criteria, the selected network comprising one of a first network and a second network, wherein both the first and second networks are networks at a location of the client device; and in response to determining that a first bandwidth of the selected network, the first bandwidth being prioritized for the specified content media type, is unavailable, selecting a second bandwidth of the selected network, the second bandwidth being prioritized for a different content media type, and transmitting the content item to the client device using the second bandwidth.