SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR TRANSMITTING FILES FROM A SENDER TO A RECEIVER IN A TELEVISION DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

摘要

A system and method for transmitting data from a sender (22) to a receiver (28) in a television distribution system, for example, a cable television distribution system (20), is provided. The files are transmitted without the need for transmitting a directory over an out of band communications link (24). In an exemplary embodiment, a filename corresponding to a file (FN1) to be transmitted is provided to a transform (54). The transform calculates a PID based on the filename. The calculated PID is incorporated into the MPEG2 data stream carrying the corresponding file contents. When an application program running in the receiver requests a file, the filename of the requested file is provided to the transform operating in the receiver (28). The transmitter and receiver transforms are identical. The transform provides a corresponding PID at its output. The PID is used to tune a PID filter (88-90) on the receiver end such that the requested file is selected from the incoming MPEG bitstream for processing by the processor (74).