Patent ID: 9749443
Date: 2017-08-29
CPC Classifications: H04L,H04N

Claim:
1. A method for providing content on an Internet Protocol (IP) network, the method comprising: establishing a connection to the network as a content source; communicating, from the content source, a first request over the network to any other content sources, the request requiring each of the any other content sources to send a response to the request directly to the content source identifying channels on which each of the any other content sources provides content; selecting, by the content source, a channel not being used by the any other content sources based on the responses to the first request, wherein when no responses to the first request are received by the content source within a period of time, selecting a default channel, and when the responses to the first request are received by the content source within the period of time, selecting, by the content source, a channel that is one channel greater than the highest identified channel in the responses to the first request; providing content to at least one client on the selected channel from the content source; and communicating, from the content source, any channel change from the selected channel to each of the any other content sources on the network.