Patent ID: 7305696

Claim:
A data broadcasting system for delivering digital content in the form of arbitrary files and streams of communication protocol packets to multiple recipients simultaneously over a broadcast or multicast medium, the data broadcast system comprising: at least one content provider unit to identify the arbitrary files and streams of communication protocol packets to be delivered in the data broadcasting system, and to generate scheduling instructions for feeding these files and streams of the digital content into the broadcast or multicast medium for transmission; and a content liaison unit to pre-allocate a bandwidth profile ahead of time to each of the at least one content provider unit, to receive specifications including identifications of the files and streams and the scheduling instructions from each of the at least one content provider unit, and to feed the identified files and communication protocol packets into the broadcast or multicast medium according to the scheduling instructions without exceeding the pre-allocated bandwidth profile, wherein the bandwidth profiles are communicated from the content liaison unit to the at least one content provider unit over a communication network, and the specifications and the scheduling instructions are communicated from the at least one content provider unit to the content liaison unit over a communication network, wherein each bandwidth profile is in the form of a specification of a bit rate available in the broadcast or multicast medium as a function of time, with no reference to data types, data formats, or other properties of the digital content of the files that can be transmitted within the corresponding bandwidth profile at any particular time, and wherein the content liaison unit pre-allocates each bandwidth profile without imposing restrictions on times at which the transmission of individual files or communication protocol packets start and end, other than a restriction that a total bit rate used by all files and communication protocol packets being transmitted at any given time is not to exceed the bit rate available at that time under the corresponding pre-allocated bandwidth profile.