Patent ID: 7823179

Claim:
A system, comprising: a hub operatively connected to a plurality of transmission devices that deliver content to one or more end users; and a processor configured to: determine a requested bandwidth associated with a content request received from a headend, wherein the content request is transmitted by the headend in response to a request for the content from the one or more end users; identify an available bandwidth associated with each of the plurality of transmission devices; calculate an available bandwidth score for each of the plurality of transmission devices, wherein the available bandwidth score comprises a ratio of the requested bandwidth and the available bandwidth; determine a service type associated with the content request; identify an available service associated with each of the plurality of transmission devices; calculate a service type score for each of the plurality of transmission devices, wherein the service type score comprises a comparison of the service type and the available service; determine a total score based, at least in part, on a summation of the available bandwidth score and the service type score, for each of the plurality of transmission devices; and select a transmission device having a highest total score from the plurality of transmission devices to handle a transmission of the content to the one or more end users.