Patent ID: 8661486

Claim:
A method comprising: predicting, at a service provider server, a channel change request based on viewing pattern data associated with a set-top box device, wherein the predicted channel change request indicates a predicted stream of video content to be sent to the set-top box device, and wherein the viewing pattern data includes a day of a week associated with the channel change request and a category of the video content associated with the channel change request; identifying, at the service provider server, a first network device from a plurality of network devices of an internet protocol television network, wherein the first network device is nearest to the set-top box device and has a first data capacity; in response to determining that the first data capacity satisfies a threshold, sending, from the service provider server, a first command to the first network device, wherein the first command instructs the first network device to: generate and store a control signal associated with the predicted channel change request at the first network device; generate a request to obtain the video content associated with the predicted stream; and store the video content associated with the predicted stream at the first network device; and in response to determining that the first data capacity fails to satisfy the threshold: sending, from the service provider server, a second command to the first network device, wherein the second command instructs the first network device to generate and store the control signal associated with the predicted channel change request at the first network device; and sending a third command from the service provider server to a second network device, wherein the third command instructs the second network device to generate a request to obtain the video content associated with the predicted stream and to store the video content associated with the predicted stream at the second network device.