Patent ID: 7496092

Claim:
A method of allocating PID values to a program in a digital transport stream, the digital transport stream including at least one program including a plurality of elementary streams, the method comprising the steps of: (a) determining from a map of session numbers an unassigned session number, wherein the map of session numbers is an array of elements, each element of the array is associated with a session number and has an unassigned state and an assigned state; (b) receiving a first session message having a first program identifier included therein; (c) assigning a first session number to a first session, wherein the first session number is the determined unassigned session number, and wherein the first session is associated with a first program having a plurality of elementary streams; (d) associating a first PMT 13 PID value with the first session number; (e) assigning a first set of PID values to the elementary streams of the first program; (f) indicating in a map of allocable PID values the assigned PID values; and (g) transmitting from a device the elementary streams of the program in a digital transport stream.