Patent ID: 8594116

Claim:
In a content delivery network comprising at least one distributing device, said distributing device being configured to distribute a plurality of packetized data streams, a plurality receiving devices being configured to receive said plurality of packetized data streams, and a plurality of physical channels providing communication from said at least one distributing device to said plurality of receiving devices, a method of operating said network to efficiently deliver said plurality of packetized data streams as one or more multicast transmissions, said method comprising: transmitting to at least a portion of said plurality of receiving devices a map relating individual ones of multicast transmissions to respective ones of said plurality of physical channels; receiving a request from at least one of said at least portion of said plurality of receiving devices for at least one of said packetized data streams being transmitted in a first one of said multicast transmissions; and causing said at least one receiving device to process a physical channel corresponding to said first one of said multicast transmissions to obtain access to said at least one packetized data stream.