Controller providing gradual transition of multiple terminals from unicast transmission

摘要

A controller in a video headend or other transmission element of a signal distribution system is operative to detect a condition in which unicast transmissions of a given content stream to a plurality of terminals meet a specified threshold. The controller starts a multicast transmission of the given content stream in response to the detected condition, and transitions at least one of the terminals to the multicast transmission. In one embodiment, the controller identifies at least one of the terminals as a terminal that will receive the multicast transmission of the given content stream in place of its unicast transmission prior to one or more of the other terminals receiving the multicast transmission. The controller stops the unicast transmission to the identified terminal if that unicast transmission has already been started, starts the multicast transmission, switches the identified terminal to the multicast transmission, and subsequently transitions one or more of the other terminals to the multicast transmission. The identified terminal may be a leading terminal or a trailing terminal.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
identifying a plurality of terminals receiving a given content stream via respective unicast transmissions, two or more of the unicast transmissions being temporally offset from one another; starting a multicast transmission of the given content stream responsive to detecting that the unicast transmissions of the given content stream meet a first threshold; identifying a first one of the plurality of terminals based on temporal offsets between a unicast transmission to the first terminal and respective unicast transmissions to remaining ones of the plurality of terminals; transitioning the first terminal to the multicast transmission; adjusting relative rates of the multicast transmission and the respective unicast transmissions to the remaining ones of the plurality of terminals; and transitioning another one of the plurality of terminals to the multicast transmission responsive to detecting that a temporal offset between the multicast transmission and a unicast transmission to the other terminal is less than a second threshold; wherein the method is implemented by at least one processing device comprising a processor coupled to a memory.