US 11,812,115 B2
Multicast assisted delivery
Timothy Stevens, London (GB); Rory Turnbull, London (GB); and Stephen Appleby, London (GB)
Assigned to BRITISH TELECOMMUNICATIONS public limited company, London (GB)
Appl. No. 17/433,414
Filed by BRITISH TELECOMMUNICATIONS PUBLIC LIMITED COMPANY, London (GB)
PCT Filed Feb. 24, 2020, PCT No. PCT/EP2020/054777
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Aug. 24, 2021,
PCT Pub. No. WO2020/173878, PCT Pub. Date Sep. 3, 2020.
Claims priority of application No. 19159748 (EP), filed on Feb. 27, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2022/0141542 A1, May 5, 2022
Int. Cl. H04N 21/6405 (2011.01); H04N 21/2183 (2011.01); H04N 21/222 (2011.01); H04N 21/266 (2011.01); H04N 21/643 (2011.01); H04N 21/845 (2011.01); H04N 21/6408 (2011.01)
CPC H04N 21/6405 (2013.01) [H04N 21/2183 (2013.01); H04N 21/222 (2013.01); H04N 21/26616 (2013.01); H04N 21/6408 (2013.01); H04N 21/64322 (2013.01); H04N 21/8456 (2013.01)] 17 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of delivering content to a client device in a network comprising a plurality of client devices, said method comprising:
i) sending a request for content to a content server from one of the client devices;
ii) receiving at a first network node a response to the request from the content server over unicast;
iii) separating by the first network node the response into a first component and a second component, wherein the first component comprises client specific data applicable to the client device requesting the content, and wherein the second component comprises common data applicable the plurality of client devices;
iv) sending by the first network node the first component over a unicast network to a second network node, and sending the second component over a multicast network to the second network node;
v) receiving the first and second components at the second network node;
vi) regenerating by the second network node the response by combining the first component with the second component; and
vii) sending the regenerated response to the requesting client device over unicast.