Abstract: A system and method are herein disclosed for parallel streaming of stored media from multiple sources. The architecture utilizes the notion of indirect streaming and provides a local proxy streaming server which is responsible for interacting with the multiple servers and scheduling downloads of media blocks and for dealing with possible rate fluctuations and server failures.

Abstract: Disclosed is a content based router, system and method of operation. Upon receipt of a data packet at in ingress router, the ingress router matches the content of the data packet against stored user subscriptions. In one embodiment, the content is described using XML data and the user subscriptions are defined by XML queries. The router assigns a routing label to the data packet based on the matching, and transmits the data packet to a second network router. Intermediate routers along the packets path then use the assigned label in combination with stored routing tables in order to determine next hop routing. Upon receipt at an egress router, the content of the message is matched against user subscriptions for those users serviced by the egress router, and the egress router provides the data packet to those end users whose subscriptions match the content. The assigned routing labels may define routing paths or routing trees.

Abstract: A Method and apparatus for dynamically discovering and utilizing unused resources for practical and efficient creation of optimized network mechanisms for data distribution. Proposed techniques for data distribution, assembly, routing and scheduling in broadband networks can be implemented as content-level server platform architecture enabled by application-level control plane. Such a platform accelerates content transfer, mirroring and replication. It applies coordinated data partitioning and resource discovery and sharing of information replication by multiple network systems. Furthermore, it harvests the unutilized bandwidth in the network by disassembling the large content to be distributed into different components. These components are then routed in spatially and temporally diverse routes through multiple paths and trees and assembled at the destination nodes. The result is accelerated content distribution, added security, scalability and robustness.

Abstract: Hierarchical hybrid optical networking is based on balancing cost and performance of optical networks by providing transparent (optical) switching of subsets of wavelengths in addition to opaque (electrical) switching of individual light paths. Effective use of wavelength-subset switching requires aggregating and deaggregating wavelength subsets in a simple, cost-effective manner. Non-uniform wavebands are introduced and analyzed their performance advantage as compared with uniform wavebands. Also proposed are several architectural options for a hierarchical hybrid optical cross-connect system that combines non-uniform wavebands and improved utilization of OEO ports.

Abstract: A system and method for path provisioning in a network calculates an optimal path using a greedy algorithm with backtracking to execute service level agreements (SLAs). More specifically, a sequential path shifting (SPS) algorithm compares a cost of a suboptimal path for a present quadruplet with the cost of switching a path for a previous quadruplet configured for alteration. If the present path is already an optimal path, then no further operations are performed. However, if the cost of a suboptimal path is greater than the switching cost, the previous path is altered so that an optimal path may be configured for the present quadruplet. Otherwise, the present quadruplet maintains its existing path. The capacity of the network is iteratively adjusted to compensate for path selection. The present system may be applied to a differentiated services network or an optical network.

Abstract: A technique for reducing ATM call blocking is provided that splits wideband connections into multiple low-bandwidth sub-connections and routing them independently through the network. Fragmented network bandwidth is used for supporting calls which are otherwise blocked by conventional routing. A detailed cell-level design for the split scheduling algorithms is provided. A system for implementing splitting without requiring any protocol changes within the network is provided. Such a system modifies the control plane protocols only within the end-stations.

Abstract: A new concept of soft quality-of-service (soft-QoS) is developed that bridges the gap between the efficient provision of network-level QoS and the requirements of multimedia applications. Soft-QoS is defined by a satisfaction index (a number that rates users' perceptual quality) and a softness profile (a function that captures the robustness of multimedia applications to network congestion). Another aspect of this invention is a bandwidth allocation scheme for multimedia applications with soft-QoS requirements is presented. The implementation of the bandwidth allocation scheme on a network element realizes a soft-QoS controller. The controller uses the connections' softness profiles to compute a bandwidth allocation that maximizes the minimum satisfaction index of active connections.