Patent ID: 9143813
Filing Date: 2015-09-22
Classification: H04L,H04N

Abstract:
1. A method comprising: receiving a subscriber request, at a headend, from a customer premises equipment (CPE) for a service in a video services delivery environment, wherein the video services delivery environment includes a first group of channels, a second group of channels, and at least one overflow channel, the first group of channels being for services in which each of the services do not take up more than half of a bandwidth on a channel in the first group of channels and the second group of channels being for services in which each of the services take up more than half of the bandwidth on a channel in the second group of channels; identifying, by the headend, from a plurality of channels available for assignment to the service from the subscriber request, two or more candidate channels having a service designation corresponding to the service from the subscriber request, wherein the service designation is indicative of a service or services that each channel can carry, and wherein the two or more candidate channels include at least one dedicated service channel from the first group of channels or from the second group of channels and the at least one overflow channel; determining, by the headend, availability of each of the two or more candidate channels by identifying which of the two or more candidate channels have sufficient bandwidth for servicing the request; assigning, by the headend, the subscriber request to an available dedicated service channel when the dedicated service channel is available, wherein the dedicated service channel is associated with a profile indicative of a single video media type that corresponds to the service from the subscriber request, wherein the dedicated service channel is dedicated to deliver a video service for a highest expected bandwidth request in the video services delivery environment; assigning, by the headend, the subscriber request to an overflow channel when the dedicated service channel is not available, wherein the overflow channel is associated with a profile indicative of multiple video media types; and communicating, by the headend, the service from the subscriber request to the CPE via the assigned channel.