Method and system for reducing latency in a multi-channel multicast streaming environment in content-delivery networks

摘要

Methods, systems and apparatus for reducing apparent latency in content-delivery networks are provided. Sources multicast certain 'preview multicast streams' to multiple subscribers. These preview multicast streams provide pre-recorded content of multicast streams. When a subscriber switches to a desired multicast stream, pre-recorded content of the desired multicast stream is reconstructed from a preview multicast stream. Thereafter, the pre-recorded content is played during the setup of the new multicast distribution tree to minimize latency. Once the distribution tree is setup, live content of the desired multicast stream is made available to the subscriber.