Patent ID: 9027068
Filing Date: 2015-05-05
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
1. A method comprising: receiving, by a device, a request from a first client for a first media stream; determining, by the device, a cost metric for displacing a second media stream based on a time-dependent coefficient and a quantity of streams assigned to a half-quadrature amplitude modulated (QAM) associated with the second media stream; determining, by the device and based on the cost metric for displacing the second media stream, a ranking of half-QAMs that include the half-QAM; determining, by the device and based on the ranking, that transmitting the first media stream requires use of bandwidth that is occupied in transmitting the second media stream using a first carrier signal of the half-QAM; sending, by the device and to an edge switching device, a first signal to move the second media stream to a second carrier signal; sending, by the device and to a second client associated with the second media stream, a first message instructing the second client to tune to the second carrier signal to continue receiving the second media stream; sending, by the device and to the edge switching device, a second signal to transmit the first media stream by using the first carrier signal; and sending, by the device and to the first client, a second message identifying the first carrier signal for the first client to receive the first media stream while the second client receives the second media stream.