Patent ID: 9553911
Date: 2017-01-24
CPC Classifications: H04L,H04N

Claim:
1. A method for managing program switch requests, the method comprising: receiving a request from a first user device to switch from a current program to a next program; wherein the first user device receives a plurality of motion pictures expert group (MPEG) streams and extracts multiple program streams including the current program from the plurality of MPEG streams by using a first user device set of packet identifiers (PIDs) associated with the first user device, and wherein the PIDs are associated with an address for the first user device; associating the first user device set of PIDs with multiple program streams comprising the next program requested by the first user device, the associating being performed by inserting the first user device set of PIDs into MPEG frames containing the next program; and transmitting to the first user device the multiple program streams of the next program; wherein these multiple streams include the first user device set of packet identifiers, and wherein the transmitting to the first user device multiple program streams of the next program comprises a channel change at a headend, wherein the channel change does not require a set top box comprising the first user device to tune to a new program stream.