System and method for efficient delivery of data content
View Patent ↗A method of delivering video on demand content, including multicasting content to a plurality of client devices with storage, including instances where delivery begins mid-stream, and recovery mechanisms for missing content. Some embodiments include defining content as mandatory and involuntarily delivering the mandatory content. Some embodiments include a carousel with a plurality of data sets, delivering each of the data sets in sequence, and then beginning repeating delivery circularly from the beginning of the sequence. Various exemplary embodiments include one or more of the following: storing a title at each client device; repeating various steps for more multiple titles; and monitoring for a required action such as downloading a new title, deleting an old title, or changing the rate of data transfer, and performing the required action.
1. A method of delivering data in at least first and second categories of service from a Video-on-Demand (VoD) system to a client device, the method comprising:
beginning delivery of content from the VoD system to the client device, wherein the client device automatically receives content from the first category of service identified by a flag but must have subscriptions to receive specified content from the second category of service;
starting a client device to receive the content from a data stream at an initial delivery location between a start point and an end point of the data stream;
reading and processing the received content from the initial delivery location to the end point of the data stream;
evaluating whether the content is complete;
determining that the content is not complete;
reading additional content from the data stream;
identifying the content from the start point to the initial delivery location in the data stream;
receiving the content from the start point to the initial delivery location; and
determining that the content is complete.
2. The method of delivering data as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising:
repeating the steps of beginning, starting, reading and processing, evaluating, determining that the content is not complete, reading, identifying, receiving, and determining that the content is complete, for additional content.
3. The method of delivering data as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying information missing from the content and supplying the missing information.
4. The method of delivering data as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the content is video on demand content.
5. The method of delivering data as claimed in claim 4 , wherein the video on demand content includes a schedule of a plurality of titles.
6. The method of delivering data as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the client device monitors the content in the data stream for an event that requires action, the client device identifies the event requiring action, and the client device performs the required action.
7. The method of delivering data as claimed in claim 6 , wherein the required action includes downloading a new video on demand title.
8. The method of delivering data as claimed in claim 7 , wherein the required action further includes:
deleting an old video on demand title from storage media included with the client device.
9. The method of delivering data as claimed in claim 7 , wherein the new video on demand title has a future release date, and access to the new video on demand title is unavailable until the future release date.
10. The method of delivering data as claimed in claim 6 , wherein identifying the event requiring action includes determining that the client device has subscribed to a new video on demand title.
11. The method of delivering data as claimed in claim 6 , wherein the required action includes redefining a delivery parameter.
12. The method of delivering data as claimed in claim 11 , wherein the delivery parameter is a rate at which video on demand data is transferred.
13. The method of delivering data as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising:
storing the content on storage media included with the client device.
14. A method of delivering data in at least first and second categories of service, comprising:
defining data sent to a plurality of client devices corresponding to the first category of service as mandatory data based upon a flag;
defining additional data corresponding to the second category of service as optional data, wherein clients automatically receive content from the first category of service but must have subscriptions to receive specified content from the second category of service;
subscribing the plurality of client devices to a multicast group corresponding to the mandatory data based upon the flag:
transmitting the mandatory data from a data source to a network;
relaying the mandatory data from the network to an access node;
replicating the mandatory data at the access node; and
sending the replicated mandatory data from the access node to the plurality of client devices, the plurality of client devices corresponding to a plurality of users that have not asked to receive the mandatory data.
15. The method of delivering data as claimed in claim 14 , further comprising:
subscribing the plurality of client devices to a multicast group corresponding to the optional data;
transmitting the optional data from the data source to the network;
relaying the optional data from the network to the access node;
replicating the optional data at the access node; and
sending the replicated optional data from the access node to the plurality of client devices, the plurality of client devices corresponding to a plurality of users that want to receive the optional data.
16. The method of delivering data as claimed in claim 15 , wherein the optional data is less popular content than the mandatory data.
17. The method of delivering data as claimed in claim 14 , wherein each of the plurality of client devices waits a random amount of time between the steps of defining data as mandatory data and involuntarily subscribing the plurality of client devices to the multicast group corresponding to the mandatory data.
18. The method of delivering data as claimed in claim 14 , wherein the data is video on demand content.
19. A method of delivering data in at least first and second categories of service, comprising:
establishing in a data source a carousel containing a plurality of data sets, wherein clients automatically receive data sets from the first category of service but must have subscriptions to receive data sets from the second category of service;
transmitting a first data set of the plurality of data sets from the data source to a network;
relaying the first data set from the network to an access node;
replicating the first data set at the access node;
sending the replicated first data set from the access node to a plurality of client devices;
repeating the steps of transmitting, relaying, replicating and sending for at least a second data set of the plurality of data sets; and
cycling back to the step of transmitting a first data set after completing the step of repeating for as least a second data set.
20. The method of delivering data as claimed in claim 19 , further comprising:
defining delivering a delivery parameter for the carousel.
21. The method of delivering data as claimed in claim 20 , further comprising:
evaluating whether a change of the delivery parameter is desirable;
determining that a change of the delivery parameter is desirable; and
redefining the delivery parameter.
22. The method of delivering data as claimed in claim 19 , further comprising:
evaluating whether a change in one or more of the plurality of data sets is desirable;
determining that a change in one or more of the plurality of data sets is desirable; and
changing the one or more of the plurality of data sets for which the determination is made that a change is desirable.
23. The method of delivering data as claimed in claim 19 , wherein the plurality of data sets are video on demand content.