A STREAM DEVICE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR MULTIMEDIA CLIENTS IN A BROADCAST NETWORK ARCHITECTURE

摘要

A stream device management system is provided for supporting applications that access a variety of stream devices associated with a conventional set-top box. More specifically, the stream device management system includes a stream manager configured to identify a plurality of stream devices and to store a device identifier for each of these stream devices, and a shared memory for storing stream data associated with each of the stream devices. To initiate communication with a first stream device, a first application sends a device identifier indicative of the first stream device to the stream manager. In response to receiving the device identifier, the stream manager communicates an address for the shared memory associated with the first stream device to the first application. Lastly, the application uses this address to access the stream data.