Patent ID: 8774062

Claim:
A method for provisioning multicast streams in a tiered multicast address directory network that includes a primary tier having a multicast address directory and at least one tier lower than the primary tier in the tiered multicast address directory network having a headend that includes a multicast address directory and a multicast address querying device, the multicast address directories coupled to the at least one lower tier multicast address directory, the method comprising: producing, in the primary tier of the tiered multicast address directory network, multicast streams for distribution to the at least one lower tier of the tiered multicast address directory network; producing, by the multicast address directory in the primary tier, descriptors for each of the multicast streams, wherein a multicast address system stores multicast stream information in the multicast stream descriptors and the multicast stream descriptors are stored at one or more tiers in the tiered multicast address directory network, wherein managing requests from the multicast address querying device in the tiered multicast address directory network comprises: querying the multicast address directory in a tier of a requesting multicast address querying device for a multicast stream descriptor for a corresponding multicast stream for transmission to the requesting multicast address querying device if the multicast address directory in the respective tier includes the multicast stream descriptor for the corresponding multicast stream, else, querying a higher tier in the multicast address directory network for the multicast stream descriptor for the corresponding multicast stream, via the multicast address directory in the tier of the requesting multicast address querying device, wherein the descriptors in the higher tier are accessible to multicast address querying devices in a lower tier via a coupling of the multicast address directories, wherein the multicast stream descriptor for the corresponding multicast stream is transmitted from the multicast address directory in the higher tier to the multicast address directory in the tier of the requesting multicast address querying device for storing for subsequent requests, wherein a requesting multicast address querying device receives the multicast stream descriptor from the multicast address directory in the tier of the requesting multicast address querying device; parsing, by the multicast address querying device, a received multicast stream descriptor to obtain at least one set of video stream information; and provisioning, by the multicast address querying device, a multicast stream that corresponds to the received multicast stream descriptor using the at least one set of video stream information parsed from the received multicast stream descriptor.