1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of content distribution in an IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) network. In particular, the present invention provides an system and method for delivering IPTV content over an existing Internet Protocol (IP) backbone using Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) tunneling.
2. Description of the Related Art
Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) is a system for transmitting television content over high-speed Internet connections. Conventional television content is usually sent to television sets by way of either cable, satellite, or through the air in the form of analog or digital signals. IPTV is similar to VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) for telephonic signals, in that it includes breaking a signal into packets at a source, sending the data (e.g. video programming) across the Internet using a suitable protocol, and reassembling the packets at a destination.
In IPTV applications, national content and programming are generally accumulated at one or two places, commonly referred to as Super Hub Offices (SHOs). This content is distributed from the SHOs to multiple Video Hub Offices (VHOs). Local channels and programming content are added at the VHO. IPTV programs are commonly stored as video at the VHOs and sent out to local customers who receive the signal at computers or at special set-top boxes attached to television sets, for instance.
There are generally several methods available for use in data distribution. Unicasting describes communication in which a piece of information is sent from one (source) point to another (destination) point, where a point may refer to a router, for example. If there are multiple destination points, then the information is transmitted from the source point multiple times, once for each destination point. Protocols that operate through unicasting include http, smtp, ftp and telnet. Multicasting describes communication in which a packet of information is sent from one source point to many destination points without having to duplicate the packet at the source point for each recipient. Multicasting is not the same as broadcasting on the Internet or on a LAN. Broadcast data are sent to every possible receiver, while multicast packets are sent only to receivers that want them.
Packets distributed using multicasting are replicated in the network by routers enabled with a multicast routing protocol, such as Protocol Independent Multicasting (PIM). PIM is an adaptive method of multicasting that responds to changes in network conditions and to changes in distributions of destination points. PIM finds a multicast path between source and destinations. PIM provides method of joining routers and an ability to recover from router failure. The multicast router determines which direction is upstream (towards the source) and which is downstream. A PIM adjacency is a relationship between selected neighboring routers and end nodes for the purpose of exchanging routing information
Routers executing a multicast routing protocol, such as PIM, maintain forwarding tables. These routers may separate routing and forwarding functionality. Non-Stop Forwarding (NSF) is a generic term for the ability of a router to carry on forwarding packets even though the device responsible for the calculation of the routing and forwarding tables may be temporarily inoperable. NSF fundamentally relies on the separation of routing and forwarding functionality within the router.
Several network architectures are currently available in the prior art for distributing TV content from the SHOs to the VHOs.
The present invention addresses efficiency and reliability issues as well as problems with scaling issues inherent in previous architectures.
The present invention provides a method for distributing Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) content. A logical path is defined that connects multiple routers in a ring network topology. The routers are generally grouped in pairs at hub offices. The hub offices generally include a super hub office (SHO) for national TV content and a video hub office (VHO) for local TV content. At least two hub offices are used for the present invention. Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) tunneling is used over an existing Internet Protocol (IP) backbone to establish connectivity between adjacent routers over the defined logical path. Typically, logically adjacent routers are connected over a Protocol Independent Multicasting (PIM) adjacency. Also, a direction for content flow is defined using PIM. The routers of the hub offices selectively join to upstream routers. A designated router may be elected for initiating distribution of the IPTV content. In the case of a failure of a router, the direction of content distribution may be reversed by changing the direction in which router join. IPTV content is distributed over the defined path using GRE tunneling. Distributing the IPTV content includes determining at each hub office the necessity of forwarding the content to an adjacent hub office in the downstream direction.
Examples of certain features of the invention have been summarized here rather broadly in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood and in order that the contributions they represent to the art may be appreciated. There are, of course, additional features of the invention that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject of the claims appended hereto.
For detailed understanding of the present invention, references should be made to the following detailed description of an exemplary embodiment, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like elements have been given like numerals.
In view of the above, the present invention through one or more of its various aspects and/or embodiments is presented to provide one or more advantages, such as those noted below.
Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) is one possible encapsulation operation performed when tunneling through the Internet. In one aspect, GRE tunnels can provide a secure Virtual Private Network (VPN). GRE provides for the encapsulation of one data packet inside another data packet. An arbitrary network protocol A may thus be transmitted over any other arbitrary network protocol B, by encapsulating the packets of A within GRE packets, which in turn are contained within packets of B. The original packet becomes the payload (i.e., data field, or content) for the final packet, which also includes a new header and trailer. In one aspect, tunnel servers may encrypt the payload, and continuously authenticate the identity of the communicating machines on a packet-by-packet basis. Use herein of the term, Generic Routing Encapsulation, may include reference to equivalent protocols that perform the same functions.
Generic Routing Encapsulation may be used for tunneling purposes, such as providing a secure for communication between source and destinations over an inherently insecure IP-based network. A tunnel may refer to a secure path for communication over an inherently insecure network, such as an IP-based network. Once active, the tunnel is not considered a party to the communication. The tunnel ceases to exist when both ends of the connection are closed.
The illustrative architecture of
The flow of content traffic starts from a designated router (for instance, router 438) in the SHO and flows toward the other router (for instance, router 420) in the SHO. In the illustration of
A designated router (DR) initiates the flow of traffic in the point-point routed ring and may be elected, often based on the assigned IP addresses. The distribution traffic commonly begins at one router in the SHO (i.e. 438) and ends in the other router in the SHO (i.e. 420). In the example of
In the instance where a VHO suffers an event, such as an outage, that removes it operatively from the point-point routed ring, the content may be received at VHOs downstream from the inoperative VHO by reversing the direction of traffic flow and receiving the content from the other SHO router (router 420). Direction reversal is facilitated using PIM. The effect of a VHO failure therefore depends on the position of the failed VHO. As an example, assume that VHO 410 goes down. Since IP multicasting is a source-state protocol, each router is continually refreshing its connection. The VHO 408 is dynamically joining to VHO 410. If VHO 410 is down, VHO 408 determines that the connection to VHO 410 is down. VHO 408 then changes to joining with VHO 406. VHO 406 then joins to VHO 404, which joins to VHO 402 through router 420. The direction of flow is then reversed along this path. The router 420 is directly connected to the source content and forwards the content to VHO 404, which then forwards it to VHO 406 and finally to VHO 408.
In contrast to
The present invention provides recovery capabilities in case of an outage of an element of the point-point routed ring. Table 1 displays outage durations (in seconds) observed upon failures for point-point routed ring architecture (
Although the invention has been described with reference to several exemplary embodiments, it is understood that the words that have been used are words of description and illustration, rather than words of limitation. Changes may be made within the purview of the appended claims, as presently stated and as amended, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention in its aspects. Although the invention has been described with reference to particular means, materials and embodiments, the invention is not intended to be limited to the particulars disclosed; rather, the invention extends to all functionally equivalent structures, methods, and uses such as are within the scope of the appended claims.
In accordance with various embodiments of the present invention, the methods described herein are intended for operation as software programs running on a computer processor. Dedicated hardware implementations including, but not limited to, application specific integrated circuits, programmable logic arrays and other hardware devices may likewise be constructed to implement the methods described herein. Furthermore, alternative software implementations including, but not limited to, distributed processing or component/object distributed processing, parallel processing, or virtual machine processing may also be constructed to implement the methods described herein.
It should also be noted that the software implementations of the present invention as described herein are optionally stored on a tangible storage medium, such as: a magnetic medium such as a disk or tape; a magneto-optical or optical medium such as a disk; or a solid state medium such as a memory card or other package that houses one or more read-only (non-volatile) memories, random access memories, or other re-writable (volatile) memories. A digital file attachment to e-mail or other self-contained information archive or set of archives is considered a distribution medium equivalent to a tangible storage medium. Accordingly, the invention is considered to include a tangible storage medium or distribution medium, as listed herein and including art-recognized equivalents and successor media, in which the software implementations herein are stored.
Although the present specification describes components and functions implemented in the embodiments with reference to particular standards and protocols, the invention is not limited to such standards and protocols. Each of the standards for Internet and other packet switched network transmission (e.g., TCP/IP, UDP/IP, HTML, HTTP) represent examples of the state of the art. Such standards are periodically superseded by faster or more efficient equivalents having essentially the same functions. Accordingly, replacement standards and protocols having the same functions are considered equivalents.
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