Patent ID: 8854948

Claim:
A computer-implemented method to detect and handle a stream-specific multicast stream fault in a digital broadcast video distribution system including a network device, the computer-implemented method comprising: receiving, by the network device, a plurality of video transport stream (TS) packets of a first primary multiplexed multicast stream, at least two of the received TS packets having set program clock reference (PCR) flags, and at least one TS packet of a second primary multiplexed multicast stream; determining an average time interval between occurrences of the received video TS packets having set PCR flags; receiving a plurality of subsequent video TS packets of the first primary multiplexed multicast stream, at least two of the received subsequent video TS packets having set PCR flags; determining a set of time intervals between successive occurrences of the subsequent video TS packets having set PCR flags; and upon determining that a first predetermined number of the set of determined time intervals differs from the average time interval by more than a predetermined difference, declaring, by the network device, a multicast stream fault specific to the first primary multiplexed multicast stream by operation of one or more computer processors and without declaring any multicast stream fault specific to the second primary multiplexed multicast stream, wherein the declared multicast stream fault causes designation of a redundant multiplexed multicast stream as a replacement for the first primary multiplexed multicast stream.