Patent ID: 9571328
Date: 2017-02-14
CPC Classifications: H04H,H04L,H04N

Claim:
1. A computer program product comprising software stored on a software storage device, the software comprising: first program instructions programmed to establish an internet protocol television (IPTV) grid including a content source in the form of an IPTV server, a plurality of grid nodes, a first end user device and a second end user device; second program instructions programmed to communicate an IPTV channel signal over a first communication path that begins at the content source and ends at the first end user device; third program instructions programmed to communicate the IPTV channel signal over a second communication path that begins at the IPTV server and ends at the second end user device; fourth program instructions programmed to determine that a quality issue condition exists for the channel signal as communicated to the second end user device; fifth program instructions programmed to, for each of a plurality of potential provider end user devices including the first end user device, predict, without actually sending audio or video sequences, multimedia quality for data sent from the potential provider end user device to the second end user device; sixth program instructions programmed to, select the first end user device as a provider end user device based, at least in part, on the prediction of multimedia quality for each of the plurality of potential end user devices; and seventh program instructions programmed to, responsive to the determination of the quality issue condition and further in response to selection of the first end user device as the provider end user device, communicate the IPTV channel signal over a third communication path that begins at the first end user device and ends at the second end user device; wherein: the software is stored on a software storage device in a manner less transitory than a signal in transit; and the fifth program instructions include: the sixth program instructions include eleventh program instructions programmed to compare the potential provider end user devices based on the single metric corresponding to each potential provider end user device.