Patent ID: 7953084

Claim:
A method of multicast channel distribution comprising the steps of: at least one end-user sending a channel request to at least one network device, wherein upon receiving the channel request, the at least one network device; verifying, if the requested channel is available in a multicast cache on the network device, and if the requested channel is not replicated at least once for another end-user; and if the requested channel is available in the multicast cache then provisioning the requested channel to the at least one end-user from the multicast cache; else forwarding the channel request and a predetermined number of additional requests for pre-fetching the predetermined number of additional channels to the multicast source; receiving the requested channel along with the one or more additional channels from the multicast source, caching the predetermined number of additional channels in the multicast cache, and provisioning only the requested channel to the at least one end-user, so as to reduce the penalty; wherein the requested channel and the cached predetermined number of additional channels comprise a channel window having a center at the requested channel.