Patent ID: 8438600

Claim:
A method of processing EPG (Electronic Program Guide) metadata in a network device, the method comprising: performing a service discovery procedure utilizing multiple service discovery metadata components supplied by a service provider, wherein the step of performing comprises: receiving a master SI table which locates in a master SI table location in provisioning information, receiving a virtual channel map table which locates in virtual channel map locations in the received master SI table, receiving a virtual channel description table which locates in virtual channel description table locations in the received virtual channel map table, and receiving a source table which locates in source table locations in the received virtual channel description table; receiving EPG metadata corresponding to a super group information element comprising both of a member element giving a group ID of another super group information element that has a higher level than a level of the super group information element and a level attribute giving a level of super group represented by the super group information element, wherein the member element is used to reference the other super group information element at a higher level; and processing the EPG metadata.