Patent ID: 8438603
Filing Date: 2013-05-07
Classification: H04L,H04N

Abstract:
1. A content distribution system, comprising: a content server used to stream content to customer premise equipment of a customer; a plurality of regional content servers, at least some of said regional content servers including long term and short term content stores; a multi-region content server, coupled to said regional content servers, the multi-region content server including a data base including more content titles than individual ones of said regional content servers; and a content distribution control apparatus configured to control distribution of content in response to a request, from said customer, for content that is not available at said content server used to stream content, said content distribution control apparatus being configured to: determine content servers which can supply the requested content and generate estimates, for alternative content servers which can supply the requested content, of the amount of time required to deliver the requested content to the content server used to stream content to the customer premise equipment of the customer, select a content server in said system to be used as the source of the requested content based on the cost of delivering content from the selected content server to said content server used to stream content to the customer premise equipment of the customer, and implement a preference for lower cost links which can be used to deliver content to said content server used to stream content to the customer premise equipment of the customer even when it results in a longer delivery delay than if a content source corresponding to more costly links was selected.