COAX SERVER ACTING AS PROXY BETWEEN COAX TRANSMISSION INFRASTRUCTURE AND INTERNET PROTOCOL (IP) TRANSMISSION INFRASTRUCTURE FOR MEDIA ON DEMAND CONTENT

摘要

A coax server acts as a proxy between a coax transmission infrastructure and an Internet Protocol (IP) transmission infrastructure. An incoming request is received from a particular one of a plurality of coax client devices on the coax infrastructure. A request for specific media content is transmitted to a media-on-demand server in response to receiving the incoming request. A media stream is received over the IP infrastructure from the media-on-demand server, the media stream corresponding to the specific media content, and the coax server allocates a coax channel of sufficient bandwidth on the coax infrastructure and transmits the media stream on the coax channel utilizing the RF modulation scheme. A pointer indicating the coax channel on which the media stream is being transmitted is sent to the particular coax client device. The coax channel is unknown to other of the coax client devices besides the particular coax client device.

主权项

1. A system comprising:
a coax transmission infrastructure formed by coaxial cable over which data are transmitted using a radio frequency (RF) modulation scheme; a plurality of coax client devices each including an RF tuner supporting the RF modulation scheme connected to the coax transmission infrastructure; an Internet Protocol (IP) transmission infrastructure formed by twisted pair wire over which data are transmitted using IP; a media on demand server connected to the IP transmission infrastructure; and a coax server coupled to both the coax transmission infrastructure and the IP transmission infrastructure for acting as a proxy between these two infrastructures; wherein, when acting as the proxy between the coax transmission infrastructure and the IP transmission infrastructure, the coax server is operable to:
transmit a request for specific media content to the media on demand server in response to receiving an incoming request from a particular one of the coax client devices;receive a media stream over the IP transmission infrastructure from the media on demand server, the media stream corresponding to the specific media content;allocate a coax channel of sufficient bandwidth on the coax transmission infrastructure and transmit the media stream on the coax channel utilizing the RF modulation scheme; andsend to the particular coax client device a pointer indicating the coax channel on which the media stream is being transmitted; wherein the coax channel on which the media stream is transmitted is unknown to other of the coax client devices besides the particular coax client device.