Patent ID: 8887216

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving data from a set-top box device at an access system via an access network, the data indicating a selection of a channel at the set-top box device, the data including a multicast group address; sending copies of video data packets from the access system for storage in a video data cache associated with the channel, the video data cache comprising a first-in first-out cache; automatically connecting the set-top box device to a multicast stream of the channel after a particular number of video data packets are sent to the set-top box device from the video data cache, wherein the particular number of video data packets is based on an aging criterion of access point packets of the channel, wherein a particular access point packet of the access point packets is stored in the video data cache, wherein a head of the video data cache corresponds to the particular access point packet based on the aging criterion, and wherein the particular number of data packets is less than a capacity of the video data cache; and deleting an association between the video data cache and the channel in response to determining that a leave request has been received from each of a plurality of set-top box devices, wherein the leave request indicates that a corresponding set-top box device is to stop receiving the channel and wherein the plurality of set-top box devices includes the set-top box device.