Patent ID: 6678740
Filing Date: 2004-01-13
Classification: G08B,G08C,H04B,H04L,H04N

Abstract:
A process carried out in a gateway coupled to one or more peripheral devices via a local area network at a customer premises, comprising:receiving from one or more peripheral devices coupled to a gateway via a local area network one or more requests identifying one or more video-on-demand programs and/or services one or more users of said one or more peripheral devices wish to enjoy; transmitting said requests to a head end cherry picker multiplexer which can supply the requested data; receiving one or more downstream messages indicating upon which logical channels and subchannels the data of the requested program(s) and/or services is modulated; tuning to the specified logical channel and demultiplexing the specified subchannels and recovering the requested data as compressed video or other data packets; if the requested program is an analog video broadcast on the airwaves or a cable TV hybrid fiber coaxial cable network, tuning to the requested signal, digitizing and demodulating the tuned signal to generate a baseband digital NTSC, PAL or SECAM video signal; if necessary to meet bandwidth constraints decompressing recovered compressed video and other data packets and recompressing them to a lower bandwidth that can be transmitted to said one or more of said peripheral devices on the available bandwidth of said local area network; converting digitized representations of NTSC, PAL or SECAM video signals to YUV format if said local area network has inadequate bandwidth to carry uncompressed video signals along with other network traffic then existing; compressing YUV format data to MPEG packets having a state of compression that fits the available bandwidth on said local area network; packetizing compressed video and other data into internet protocol packets (hereafter IP packets) and encapsulating the IP packets in LAN packets addressed to said one or more peripheral devices that requested one or more program(s) and/or services and transmitting said LAN packets over said local area network to the peripherals that requested the data; receiving from said one or more peripheral devices upstream LAN packets and recovering encapsulated upstream IP packets therein; and routing said upstream IP packets to either a cable modem, a DSL modem or a conventional modem for coupling to a network for transmission on an upstream logical channel.