Patent ID: 8201208

Claim:
A gateway to distribute programming content and one or more interactive applications, the gateway comprising: a local data store configured to store local data, the local data store comprising a cache to cache one or more of a plurality of chunks of an inbound carousel, the plurality of chunks including a cache indication indicating which of the plurality of chunks are to be cached; a cache management module configured to selectively cache the one or more chunks based on the cache indication included in the plurality of chunks; a carousel proxy in communication with the local data store, the carousel proxy configuring one or more processors to: receive the inbound carousel, the inbound carousel comprising the plurality of chunks, a first chunk in the plurality of chunks to hold data describing characteristics of an interactive application and further one or more chunks to hold application data of the interactive application, and modify the inbound carousel utilizing data stored in the local data store to produce an outbound carousel optimized for transmission to a distribution network; and an outbound carousel control module configured to optimize a rate at which chunks are to be sent in the outbound carousel.