BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIGS. 1A-1F illustrate a technique for servicing channel change requests in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.
FIG. 2 depicts a process flow diagram of the above-described technique for servicing channel change requests in a digital video network that is capable of distributing digital video content to clients via multicasting and unicasting.
FIGS. 3 and 4 depict an embodiment of a channel change server and a client, respectively, which are configured to service channel change requests in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.
FIG. 5 depicts an exemplary process flow diagram that illustrates the interaction between a server system and a client related to servicing a channel change request.
FIG. 6 is an exemplary process flow diagram of surf mode logic in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.
FIGS. 7A-7C depict a process of servicing a channel change request via unicasting.
FIG. 8 illustrates a technique for switching a client from unicasting back to multicasting in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.
FIGS. 9A-9D depict exemplary states of the client's stream buffer with respect to the technique described with reference to FIG. 8.
FIG. 10 illustrates another technique for switching a client from unicasting back to multicasting in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.
FIGS. 11A-11D depict exemplary states of the client's stream buffer with respect to the technique described with reference to FIG. 10.
FIG. 12 is a process flow diagram of a method for servicing a channel change request in a digital video network in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.
FIG. 13 is a process flow diagram of another method for servicing a channel change request in a digital video network in accordance with another embodiment of the invention.
FIG. 14 is a graph of bandwidth usage versus time for a stream that is provided to a client at a rate that supports normal playout at the client and that includes forward error correction.
FIG. 15 illustrates the bandwidth usage when a client buffer is filled by a burst of digital video content that is sent immediately upon detecting a channel change request (CCR).
FIG. 16 is a graph of bandwidth usage versus time for a stream that is provided to a client using forward error correction for a limited initial period in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.
FIG. 17 is a graph of bandwidth usage versus time for a stream that is provided to a client using forward error correction for a limited initial period in accordance with another embodiment of the invention.
FIG. 18 is a graph of bandwidth usage versus time for a stream that is provided to a client using forward error correction for a limited initial period in accordance with another embodiment of the invention.
FIG. 19 is a graph of bandwidth usage versus time for a stream that is provided to a client using forward error correction for a limited initial period in accordance with another embodiment of the invention.
FIG. 20 is a process flow diagram of a method for servicing channel change requests in a digital video network that is capable of distributing digital video content to clients via multicasting and unicasting.
FIG. 21 is a process flow diagram of another method for servicing channel change requests in a digital video network that is capable of distributing digital video content to clients via multicasting and unicasting.
FIG. 22 is a process flow diagram of another method for servicing channel change requests in a digital video network that is capable of distributing digital video content to clients via multicasting and unicasting.
FIG. 23 depicts an embodiment of a stream server transmit module that resides on the stream server side of the digital video network and a client receive module that resides on the client side of the digital video network.
FIG. 24 is a process flow diagram of a method for streaming digital video content to a client in a digital video network.