Abstract: A configuration as discussed herein includes a content management system. The content management system can reside in a central location or be distributed amongst multiple different locations in a network environment. In general, the content management system keeps track of configuration information for the retrieval of content. For example, the content management system identifies a presence of one or more content delivery sources in the network environment. The content management system utilizes the contact information to communicate with content delivery sources for discovery of configuration information. The configuration information can indicate: i) a respective address of the content delivery source, ii) a type of content outputted by the respective address, iii) a format of the content such as streaming data outputted by the respective address. The configuration information can be used to identify an address in which to retrieve requested content according to a desired format.

Abstract: Techniques disclosed herein include systems and methods that provide a workflow-based session manager or workflow engine for a content delivery system, such as for delivering video-on-demand, streaming audio, streaming video, etc. Such techniques increase velocity and flexibility of deploying new features and services in a video delivery system. Techniques include a session management model provides a service-oriented and workflow-based approach. As a service-oriented approach, each functional session management step can be represented as a business service. As a workflow-based solution, a sequence of steps to be performed can be defined as data, rather than being hard-coded inside an application. Defined as data, steps (nodes, tasks) can then be created and changed using a graphical editor. New services can be added by defining actions for the new service, and adding a node to a given session management workflow sequence. Techniques include a workflow engine that initiates session management in realtime.

Abstract: A dynamic service group discovery and mapping approach avoids manual assignment of stream channels for transporting video services to the client devices that provide the video services to an end user. Client devices, such as set-top boxes, receive video services such as video on demand (VOD), switched digital video (SDV), pay-per view (PPV) and other narrowcast types of video for selective transmission. Each client device scans for visible stream channels, and sends a report indicative of visible stream channels to a dynamic mapping server. The dynamic mapping server applies aggregation rules for determining, based on the reported stream channels, which client devices are in the same service group. By receiving reports from each client device, the dynamic mapping server identifies groupings of service groups by combining sets of client devices receiving common channels, and “builds” the service groups as additional reports indicate common stream channels visible to multiple set top boxes.

Abstract: A distributed resource management mechanism allocates transmission resources by distributing the resources among a plurality of service nodes each responsible for a portion of the resources according to a hash function. A data center receives resource allocation requests from applications, such as video services applications, including a computed hash value based on the desired resource and indicative of the service node for providing the requested resource. A remote resource management client identifies the resource and computes the hash based on a request from the application, and transmits the request to a resource management server on the service node having the resource indicated by the hash, thus avoiding centralized queuing or caching of the resource requests and instead delegating to the service nodes. Service nodes may redundantly share responsibility for the resources through a root node or a cluster arrangement, providing failover if a service node becomes inoperational.