Patent ID: 8432882

Claim:
A receiver, comprising: an input port for receiving an aggregate transport stream compliant with an MPEG digital video broadcast (DVB) transport stream standard, wherein the aggregate transport stream comprises: a plurality of transport streams that each comply with the MPEG DVB transport stream standard, each the plurality of transport streams being encapsulated in the aggregate transport stream according to a respective encapsulation layer added to each of the packets in the aggregate stream, each respective encapsulation layer comprising: an encapsulation header that includes an encapsulation packet identifier (PID) to uniquely identify which stream of the plurality of transport streams each of the respective packets in the aggregate transport stream belongs: and control information that comprises signaling information for de-combining the respective packet from the aggregate transport stream: wherein the aggregate transport stream comprises at least one adaptation field (AF) inserted selectively into a packet of the aggregate transport stream: a de-combining module in communication with the input port and configured to: de-combine the aggregate transport stream based on the encapsulation header, including the encapsulation PID, the control information and the AF, the de-combining including removing the encapsulation layer from each respective packet of the aggregate transport stream and using the AF to facilitate packet error adjustment for the plurality of transport streams; and a router in communication with the de-combining module for supplying a given transport stream of the plurality of transport streams to one of a plurality of output ports.