Abstract: Recording reconstruction from multiple overlapping recordings may be provided. New recorders may copy manifests from working recorders, as opposed to reconstructing from failed recorders, to construct manifests that refer to video fragments from different recorders. Origin servers may follow these reconstructed manifests to obtain any fragment in the recording, in any combination of recorder failure/take-over/restart, as long as there was at least one recorder functioning at all times.

Abstract: Recording reconstruction from multiple overlapping recordings may be provided. New recorders may copy manifests from working recorders, as opposed to reconstructing from failed recorders, to construct manifests that refer to video fragments from different recorders. Origin servers may follow these reconstructed manifests to obtain any fragment in the recording, in any combination of recorder failure/take-over/restart, as long as there was at least one recorder functioning at all times.

Abstract: A technique is provided for rapid channel change (RCC) processing in a programming distribution network. The RCC process herein is configured to transmit unicast stream of packets (“RCC burst”) during a “fast-fill” interval for up to a full duration of the multicast join window, or until it is stopped by a an explicit message sent from the user terminal. The unicast stream of packets is transmitted at a full rate of an access link (i.e., the bottleneck link) on a path to the user terminal beyond an earliest time when the user terminal could join a multicast stream of packets for a new channel requested by the user terminal.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a separate surrogate monitor stream provides real-time media monitoring statistics for non-media savvy protocols. The surrogate monitor stream contains packet transmission parameters, such as sequence numbers and time stamps, for associated media packets in the non-savvy media stream. The surrogate monitor stream also contains checksums derived from the media packets. The checksums are used to correlate the packets in the surrogate monitor stream with the media packets in the media stream. The information in the surrogate monitor stream is then used in conjunction with the non-savvy media stream to provide real-time media monitoring without having to modify existing infrastructure. For example, head-end video servers do not have to add Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) support or deal with protocol upgrades like RTP/UDP co-existence.

Abstract: Optimizations for rapid channel changes may be provided. In response to a channel change request, rate shaping may be used to provide a unicast packet stream at a first transmission rate for a first time interval before reducing the rate of the unicast packet stream to a lower transmission rate for a second time interval. During the second time interval, a multicast packet stream may be joined and the video frames associated with the unicast packet stream, which may lag behind the multicast packet stream, and the multicast packet stream may be synchronized.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a separate surrogate monitor stream provides real-time media monitoring statistics for non-media savvy protocols. The surrogate monitor stream contains packet transmission parameters, such as sequence numbers and time stamps, for associated media packets in the non-savvy media stream. The surrogate monitor stream also contains checksums derived from the media packets. The checksums are used to correlate the packets in the surrogate monitor stream with the media packets in the media stream. The information in the surrogate monitor stream is then used in conjunction with the non-savvy media stream to provide real-time media monitoring without having to modify existing infrastructure. For example, head-end video servers do not have to add Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) support or deal with protocol upgrades like RTP/UDP co-existence.