Abstract: A method receives a set of data. Further, the method receives a traffic key. In addition, the method determines a traffic protection group for the set of data. The method also encrypts the set of data according to the traffic key to generate an encrypted set of data. Finally, the method provides the encrypted set of data through a network to a device.

Abstract: Digital content is extracted from single and multiple-program transport streams for subsequent non-real-time (background) transmission in a bandwidth-efficient manner. At an encoder, several null and/or nonessential (N/N) packets (e.g., packets of unused programs) in a transport stream are replaced by an annotation packet (AP) to obtain non-real-time packets. The non-real time packets are inserted into null packet locations (NU) of a real time transport stream. At a decoder, the annotation packets are used to regenerate a specified number of null packets to maintain the original separation of packets of the non-real time data (for timing purposes), allowing existing hardware and/or software to decode the selected program.