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System-and-method-for-transmission-of-programming-on-demand

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System and method for transmission of programming on demand

Details

Inventors: Kochanski, Gregory P.;
Assignee: AT&T Corp. (Murray Hill, NJ)
Primary Examiner: Metjahic; Safet
Assistant Examiner: Grant; Chris
Attorney, Agent or Firm:

A method and system for providing programming on demand service to television subscribers. In a preferred embodiment, each group of viewers that requests a given program is coupled to a separate video "feed" of the program. Each individual feed shows the program at a different rate. In this manner a second group of viewers who begin viewing a program after a first group of viewers may "catch up" to the first group. Whenever such an "intersection" occurs, the groups are merged and view the remainder of the movie on a single feed. In this manner the total number of feeds to required to provide video on demand service to a large number of viewers is reduced.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The problems associated with the prior methods of implementing video on demand are overcome by the present invention.
By using the present invention the number of feeds required in a video on demand system may be reduced without an accompanying increase in waiting time.
The number of feeds is reduced by switching viewers among two or more feeds that show a given program at different rates.
When a first viewer requests a program, that viewer's television set is coupled to a first feed and the first viewer progresses through the program at a rate associated with the first feed.
Thereafter, when a second viewer requests the same program as the first viewer, the second viewer is coupled to a second feed and the second viewer progresses through the program at a rate associated with the second feed.
In this manner, the second viewer may "catch up" to the first viewer if the second viewer is coupled to a feed that is faster than the feed to which the first viewer is coupled.
When such an "intersection" occurs, the two viewers are "clumped" together.
That is, one of the viewers is switched to the other viewer's feed so that the two viewers are served by one feed for the remainder of the program.
Subsequent viewers requesting the same program as the first two viewers are coupled to either the first feed, second feed, or one or more additional feeds of varying rates, and the clumping process repeats, eventually leading to one feed servicing a large number of viewers.
Accordingly, the number of feeds required to service all of the viewers is somewhat less than the total number of viewers, thereby allowing for a reduction in the number of feeds required to provide video on demand service.

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