Patent ID: 9113211
Filing Date: 2015-08-18
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
1. A computer-implemented method, comprising: identifying a skewing window associated with a plurality of unicast video streams based upon a skewing rate and a program duration associated with the unicast video streams, the plurality of unicast video streams being associated with the same piece of video content; generating one or more multicast streams based upon the skewing window; skewing the plurality of unicast video streams toward a respective one of the one or more multicast streams, thereby producing a plurality of skewed unicast video streams; merging the plurality of skewed unicast video streams into the respective one or more multicast video streams; determining whether a skewed unicast video stream from the plurality of skewed unicast video streams matches one of the one or more multicast video streams; wherein merging comprises merging the matching skewed unicast video stream into a matching multicast video stream; determining whether any skewed unicast video stream has not been merged with the one or more multicast video streams; responsive to the determination, continuing to skew the non-matching unicast video stream until all skewed unicast video streams from the plurality of skewed unicast video streams have been merged into the one or more multicast video streams.