Patent ID: 8144721

Claim:
A system comprising: a first network that is a broadcast overlay network comprising a ring topology, wherein the broadcast overlay network is associated with a service provider and dedicated to carrying broadcast traffic of a plurality of channels from a head-end network to egress add-drop multiplexers; a digital subscriber line access multiplexer (DSLAM) having a line interfaced-and a network interface, and coupled to a particular egress add-drop multiplexer of the broadcast overlay network, wherein the particular egress add-drop multiplexer is a routing device for the plurality of channels for the digital subscriber line multiplexer, wherein the digital subscriber line access multiplexer functions as a routing point that receives a request for a particular video channel from a customer premise via the line interface and delivers the particular video channel, acquired from the particular egress add-drop multiplexer, via the network interface to the line interface without propagation of the request to other routing devices; a second network coupled to the digital subscriber line access multiplexer to accommodate unicast traffic to and from the customer premise and a computer network, wherein the second network is associated with the service provider; and a third network coupled to the digital subscriber line access multiplexer to accommodate unicast traffic to and from the customer premise and the head-end network, wherein the third network is associated with the service provider.