Digital domain content processing and distribution apparatus and methods

1. A computerized method of providing digitally rendered content to a plurality of users of a content distribution network, the computerized method comprising:

receiving digitally rendered content from one or more content sources, the digitally rendered content comprising one or more packetized program streams;

selecting one or more of the one or more packetized program streams to create targeted narrowcast digitally rendered content for a subset of the plurality of users;

generating a service group for the subset of the plurality of users with the selected one or more packetized program streams;

converting the selected one or more packetized program streams using an inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) into a digital data stream suitable for transmission to the service group, the digital data stream comprising a radio frequency spectrum for supporting one or more user services; and

transmitting the digital data stream to the service group over one or more frequency carriers.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

correlating each of the one or more packetized program streams to a user service of the one or more user services; and

assigning each of the one or more user services to at least one of the one or more frequency carriers.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the assignment of each of the one or more user services to the at least one of the one or more frequency carriers comprises:

dynamically assigning each of the one or more user services to at least one of the one or more frequency carriers based at least partly on changes to service offerings; and

generating programming information corresponding to the assignment of each of the one or more user services to at least one of the one or more frequency carriers.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more frequency carriers comprise at least one frequency carrier having a frequency bandwidth of less than 6 MHz.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

dynamically allocating a frequency bandwidth to each of the one or more frequency carriers based at least partly on demand for the digitally rendered content.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

configuring one or more frequency carriers as one or more guard bands.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the conversion of the received digitally rendered content using the IFFT into the digital data stream suitable for transmission to the plurality of users comprises:

applying an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) operation to multiplex the received digitally rendered content onto the one or more frequency carriers.

8. A computerized method of providing digitally rendered content to a plurality of subscribers over a radio frequency bearer medium of a managed content distribution network, the computerized method comprising:

receiving bulk encrypted digitally rendered content from one or more content sources, the digitally rendered content comprising one or more packetized program streams;

decrypting the bulk encrypted digitally rendered content;

applying conditional access encryption to various ones of the digitally rendered content for delivery to specific ones of the plurality of subscribers to produce re-encrypted digitally rendered content;

transforming the re-encrypted digitally rendered content using an inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) into a digital data stream suitable for transmission to the plurality of subscribers via the bearer medium, the bearer medium comprising a radio frequency spectrum for supporting one or more subscriber services;

dynamically allocating each of the one or more subscriber services to a prescribed frequency carrier or band of carriers of the radio frequency spectrum, the allocating being based at least partly on one or more changes to service offerings and according to at least one configuration data structure; and

transmitting the digital data stream to the plurality of subscribers via the radio frequency spectrum.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

correlating each of the one or more packetized program streams to a subscriber service of the one or more subscriber services.

10. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

generating programming information corresponding to the allocation of each of the one or more subscriber services to the prescribed frequency carrier or band of carriers.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein the prescribed carriers comprise at least one frequency carrier having a frequency bandwidth of less than 6 MHz.

12. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

dynamically allocating frequency bandwidths to the prescribed frequency carriers or bands of carriers based at least partly on demand for the digitally rendered content.

13. The method of claim 8 , wherein the radio frequency spectrum comprises a frequency band having a frequency above 1002 MHz.

14. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

allocating a prescribed frequency carrier or band of carriers of the radio frequency spectrum for carrying system information.

15. The method of claim 8 , wherein the transformation of the received digitally rendered content using the IFFT into the digital data stream suitable for transmission to the plurality of subscribers comprises:

applying an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) operation to multiplex the received digitally rendered content onto the prescribed frequency carrier or band of carriers.

16. The method of claim 8 , wherein the at least one configuration data structure comprises a pre-compiled binary image file deployed in a hardcoded format.

17. A computerized content processing apparatus configured to distribute digitally rendered content from a plurality of content sources to a plurality of users of a managed content distribution network, the computerized content processing apparatus comprising:

one or more network interfaces configured to receive the digitally rendered content from the plurality of content sources;

one or more downstream interfaces configured to transmit data streams to the plurality of users via one or more frequency resources, the one or more frequency resources comprising a plurality of radio frequency carriers for supporting one or more subscriber services;

a processor apparatus in data communication with the one or more network interfaces and the one or more downstream interfaces; and

a storage apparatus in data communication with the processor apparatus and comprising at least one computer program, the at least one computer program comprising a plurality of instructions that, when executed by the processor apparatus, cause the computerized content processing apparatus to:

dynamically assign the received digitally rendered content to the one or more frequency resources based at least partly on changes to the one or more subscriber services; and

multiplex the received digitally rendered content into a frequency division multiplexed (FDM) data stream for transmission to the plurality of users via the one or more frequency resources;

wherein the one or more network interfaces are configured to dynamically determine one or more service types of the one or more subscriber services in order update allocation of the received digitally rendered content to the one or more frequency resources according to one or more operational optimizations.

18. The content processing apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the carriers each comprise a frequency bandwidth less than or equal to 6 MHz.

19. The content processing apparatus of claim 18 , wherein the one or more frequency resources comprise quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM)-modulated channels, and the QAM-modulated channels are contiguous within the frequency spectrum.

20. The content processing apparatus of claim 18 , wherein:

the one or more service types of the one or more subscriber services comprise one or more broadcast services and one or more narrowcast services; and

the one or more operational optimizations comprises maximization of the number of the one or more narrowcast services at an expense of the one or more broadcast services, the one or more narrowcast services being more profitable relative to the one or more broadcast services.

21. A computerized method of providing digitally rendered content to a plurality of users of a content distribution network, the computerized method comprising:

receiving digitally rendered content from one or more content sources, the digitally rendered content comprising one or more packetized program streams;

selecting one or more of the one or more packetized program streams to create targeted narrowcast digitally rendered content for a subset of the plurality of users;

generating a service group for the subset of the plurality of users with the selected one or more packetized program streams;

converting the selected one or more packetized program streams using an inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) into a digital data stream suitable for transmission to the service group, the digital data stream comprising a radio frequency spectrum for supporting one or more user services; and

transmitting, via a first multiplexing stage, the digital data stream to at least a second multiplexing stage over one or more frequency carriers, the second multiplexing stage being downstream from the first multiplexing stage; and

wherein the digital data stream comprises an unused portion of the frequency spectrum to enable content insertion by the second multiplexing stage.