HK1050952A - Adaptive bandwidth system and method for broadcast data - Google Patents

Description

Adaptive bandwidth system and method for broadcast data

Background

The present invention relates generally to a system and method for providing an adaptive bandwidth architecture for broadcast systems, and more particularly to a system and method for allocating bandwidth to broadcast-type systems based on downlink end-user behavior.

Typical broadcast systems, such as television systems and cable systems, broadcast the same signal to all service nodes and/or subscribers. These typical systems always transmit an identical signal regardless of whether the signal is used by the end user, and are thus referred to as broadcast systems. It is desirable that broadcast systems such as cable television be capable of having a digital switching system so that the system bandwidth is only used for services that are actually used by the end user.

There are various systems that attempt to provide some of the switching system capabilities for broadcast systems. For example, one patent assigned to Stanford university sets forth a method of tracking and targeting demographically defined audiences in a cable system, wherein one or more different channels contain advertisements that can be advertised for a particular customer base. However, this patent does not describe a digital data exchange system for a broadcasting system. Another patent assigned to Zenith discloses a method of multiplexing compressed images and auxiliary data in the same television transmission system. The system includes a feedback mechanism that allows the multiplexer to vary the signal component buffering rate to maintain a certain level of quality. This system is also not a digital data switching network. Yet another patent, assigned to Lucent, describes a method of multiplexing data traffic on multiple television transmission channels in which the maximum amount of data on each channel is fixed, but a bandwidth manager dynamically tracks the bandwidth utilization of the channels and can determine on which channel to place additional traffic.

Digital data switching networks can provide many advantages and capabilities to broadcast systems that are not currently available to broadcast systems. For example, the various signals (including program signals and advertisements) sent to each user or service node may be more specific to each user or service node. In addition, the bandwidth allocated to any one service may be increased, decreased, or deleted for certain time periods. The digital switching system also allows signal multiplexes to be sent to each service node. It is therefore desirable to provide a digital data switching network for a general broadcasting system. The present invention is introduced in this regard.

Summary of The Invention

A bandwidth adaptation system and method for a broadcasting system are provided. This system allows a broadcast system, such as cable television, to vary the bandwidth of any service provided to a service node or user based on the feedback from the service node or user. The system may also drop certain traffic for some predetermined time so that the bandwidth is available for other traffic. In general, this system allows a typical digital broadcast television type system, such as cable television, to be converted into a digital data switching network system.

In particular, the system may include a remultiplexer that reallocates system bandwidth based on feedback from downstream end users or service nodes. Feedback for users or service nodes may be generated based on downlink end-user behavior. For example, if all users connected to a particular service node are not currently using a service, the unused traffic bandwidth allocated to that particular service node may be reduced and the freed-up bandwidth allocated to other services. The system also allows multiplexing of the different signals generated for each service node to join or leave the service with minimal latency depending on the current needs of the service node. To exit/join a service, the system may employ a novel ring cache mechanism, as will be described in more detail below.

According to one aspect of the present invention, a method is provided for optimizing bandwidth efficiency in the distribution of digital images, digital sound, and data by a cable television system. In particular, the transmission channels, or portions thereof, may be dynamically configured as desired to contain only digital images, digital sound and data components that are valuable to the customers serviced by these channels at that time. This on-demand configuration can be accomplished with a dynamic bandwidth management component/mechanism that can monitor and react to changes in customer utilization, instructing the remultiplexer module to allocate bandwidth from digital traffic with small bandwidth requirements to traffic with large bandwidth requirements at a given time. One or more flow control mechanisms for achieving this objective in accordance with the present invention are described below. Furthermore, through the various methods described herein, the bandwidth efficiency can be achieved without degrading the service to system customers. The system requires the establishment and assignment of a unique multiplex for each digital carrier channel at each optical communication node of the cable television system.

According to another aspect of the invention, the system may comprise a data receiver that receives digital broadcast television data, such as data required for CNN or EPSN television services, and IP data, and a bandwidth allocation and multiplexing system that dynamically allocates bandwidth in the system to one or more service nodes. The dynamic allocation may occur based on feedback regarding user behavior fed into the bandwidth allocation and multiplexing system. In particular, the bandwidth allocation and multiplexing system may include a re-multiplexer, a bandwidth manager, and a digital broadcast television server connected together. The server receives feedback about the user's behavior and passes it to the bandwidth manager. The bandwidth manager may determine how to allocate system bandwidth based on user behavior, and the multiplexer may allocate system bandwidth based on commands from the bandwidth manager. By using the system, a switched digital data network for broadcast type data is provided.

Brief description of the drawings

Fig. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a broadcast system incorporating a bandwidth allocation system in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of a bandwidth allocation method according to the present invention;

fig. 3 is a diagram illustrating another embodiment of a bandwidth allocation method according to the present invention.

Detailed description of the preferred embodiments

The invention is particularly useful for dynamically allocating bandwidth based on user behavior in a digital broadcast television system, and is therefore described in the context of digital cable television broadcasting. It is to be understood, however, that the system and method of the present invention has a wide range of applications, such as being useful in other types of broadcast systems where dynamic bandwidth allocation is required. In a preferred embodiment, implementations of the invention may utilize one or more hardware, such as servers, re-multiplexers, and service nodes, and one or more software, such as bandwidth managers and software in the service nodes and re-multiplexers, executed by the one or more hardware. The hardware and software together implement a bandwidth allocation system. The broadcast data bandwidth allocation system of the present invention will now be described in more detail.

Fig. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a broadcast system 10 incorporating a bandwidth allocation system in accordance with the present invention. In this example, the cable television transmission system is shown as distributing data ("service data") to each of digital image service, digital audio service, and data service ("customer service") using frequency division multiplexing on a plurality of carrier channels connected to customers of the system. The system may distribute multiple customer services within each carrier channel using various multiplexing techniques. The digital image client service may comprise a digital broadcast television service such as a cable television network or a targeted service such as video on demand, and may be a Constant Bit Rate (CBR) video data stream or a Variable Bit Rate (VBR) video data stream, which may be sent encrypted or not. Each separate digital television program, including all its audio, video and related data, is considered a customer service. The transmission system comprises a service node 20 which transmits a common set of carrier channels to all the clients it serves, each client being tuned to a carrier channel and a data stream within that channel which is required to receive a particular client service.

In particular, the system 10 may include a traffic server portion 12, a bandwidth allocation and multiplexing system 14, a transmission system 16, and one or more Consumer Premises Equipment (CPE) 18. In operation, the service server may receive input data to be transmitted over the broadcast system and receive feedback regarding user behaviour for controlling bandwidth allocation; the bandwidth allocation and multiplexing system 14 can dynamically allocate bandwidth according to user behavior and generate unique signal multiplexing for each service node; the transmission system can connect the service server and the bandwidth allocation and multiplexing system to the CPE and transmit various multiplexes to each service node; the CPE may transmit signals to individual subscribers. In the preferred embodiment, the transmission system 16 may be a terrestrial cable, fiber optic cable, wireless link, or satellite system, and the CPE may be an optical or electrical communication device. Each CPE18 may include a service node 20 (which in the preferred embodiment may be an optical communication node) and a coaxial cable 22 for that node that connects one or more customers 24 with the service node. Service node 20 may receive the signal multiplex from system 10 and distribute the service to each home. The service node may also generate information about user behavior, such as real-time channel tuning information, which the bandwidth allocation and multiplexing system may use to allocate bandwidth between customer services.

The service server 12 for each customer service may include a Video On Demand (VOD) service server 30, an IP data router 32, and a digital broadcast television service server 34. The VOD service server 30 may generate VOD service data to be transmitted to the remultiplexer 38 in the bandwidth allocation and multiplexing system 14 according to the bandwidth allocated to the VOD service, may generate a bandwidth request to be transmitted to the bandwidth manager 40, and may receive a bandwidth allocation response from the bandwidth manager. IP router 32 may receive IP data to be transmitted over system 10, may generate IP traffic data for retransmission by remultiplexer 38 based on bandwidth allocated to the IP traffic, may generate bandwidth requests to be sent to bandwidth manager 40, and may also receive bandwidth allocation replies from the bandwidth manager. The remultiplexer may receive digital broadcast television streams in addition to VOD data and IP data. The digital broadcast television service server 34 may receive user behavior feedback, such as optional real-time channel tuning information, from the various service nodes 20 over the transmission system 16. The user activity data may be processed to generate information about the current bandwidth requirements of the service nodes 20 and passed to the bandwidth manager 40, which may use the feedback to dynamically allocate system bandwidth among the services.

The bandwidth allocation and multiplexing system 14 may include a re-multiplexer 38 and a bandwidth manager 40. The bandwidth manager 40 may dynamically allocate system bandwidth to each service in real time and issue bandwidth commands to the remultiplexer based on the feedback data and the service server's bandwidth requests. The remultiplexer 30 may generate signal multiplexes to each service node 20 in accordance with the instructions of the bandwidth manager. In terms of distance, if a service node withdraws from a service for a predetermined time, the signal multiplex of the service node does not include the withdrawn service. The performance of the remultiplexer ensures that all of the bandwidth traffic allocated to customer traffic is provided to the traffic by various methods including drop-out data packets and various statistical multiplexing methods.

The bandwidth manager 40 can dynamically track bandwidth traffic requested by client traffic on the transmission system based on requests specified by the client traffic and rules based on a bandwidth manager decision tree, and can dynamically allocate bandwidth traffic to each client traffic between and within carrier channels. The bandwidth manager decision tree implements rules such as:

(1) permanently reserving bandwidth for a certain customer service;

(2) reserving bandwidth for a certain customer service for a specified period of time;

(3) reserving bandwidth for a certain client service until the set-top box requests to turn off the bandwidth;

(4) if some digital television services (such as a VOD service or a data broadcasting service) request the use of bandwidth, reducing the bandwidth of the IP client service;

(5) a charging scheme is applied to each customer service and bandwidth is allocated according to the charging scheme so that higher rated services receive the requested bandwidth without other high rated services having requested bandwidth for the same time slot.

Bandwidth traffic may also be specified to include large amounts and/or average bit rates. The decision tree may also contain the following rules: if a customer served by a certain service node (optical communications node) is not tuned to a certain digital image customer service (such as a digital cable television network), the customer service may be significantly degraded, even temporarily out of multiplexing of data sent over the channel, to reduce the amount of bandwidth consumed by the customer service.

In particular, the bandwidth manager 40 is responsible for providing the service server 12 with information about which carrier channels can reach the service nodes. The bandwidth server also provides the service server with various bandwidth parameters for each channel, such as the maximum average bit rate that can be guaranteed for the client service and the duration of the guaranteed bandwidth. The carrier channel information and these parameters define the available bandwidth services.

To get a certain bandwidth for a certain period of time, each traffic server may request bandwidth from a bandwidth manager. Then, the bandwidth manager transmits the acceptance or rejection information to the server. Upon receiving the request, the bandwidth manager also sends a notification to the remultiplexer that includes a descriptor of the bandwidth traffic allocated to the client traffic. The remultiplexer uses these descriptors and remultiplexer decision tree rules to provide bandwidth services to all customer services in each multiplex.

Any client traffic may be unicast mode or multicast mode of the remultiplexer. In the case of unicast mode, a single data packet stream containing customer service data for a certain customer service is input to the remultiplexer and multiplexed into a single outbound carrier channel connected to a certain service node 20. In the multicast mode, a single data packet stream containing service data for a customer service is input to a re-multiplexer and multiplexed into more than one outbound carrier channel. For example, a single data stream of a digital cable television program may be input to a remultiplexer and multiplexed into one carrier channel for each customer service node 20 served by the remultiplexer.

The carrier channels of the system may use different compression protocols and modulation schemes. In a preferred embodiment, a multi-program transport stream as specified by the MPEG-2 transport stream protocol may be used, and each carrier channel may be modulated for transmission by Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM). The customer services provided with the present system may comprise Internet Protocol (IP) data packets to subscriber cable modems conforming to the MCNS/DOCSIS or DVB-DAVIC cable modem standards, and the IP router 32 may comprise a cable modem termination system conforming to these standards. A method of providing quality of service (QoS) performance in a broadcast system will now be described in more detail.

The system 10 shown in fig. 1 may be enhanced by providing additional quality of service (QoS) performance in bandwidth services by the method used by the bandwidth manager described below with reference to fig. 2 and 3. In particular, a minimum level of bandwidth ("base level") may be permanently reserved within each carrier channel for a specified type of customer service (such as Internet Protocol (IP) customer service, digital broadcast television service) or for customer service with some indicia, such as customer service with QoS on demand designation, or for a specified period of time.

Using the bandwidth manager decision tree, the bandwidth server can allocate bandwidth to customer traffic not protected at the base level by ensuring that the average total bandwidth consumed by these traffic does not exceed the amount of total bandwidth available on the carrier channels minus the base level, and the remultiplexer can enhance this strategy with various bit rate reduction techniques if necessary.

Fig. 2 illustrates an example of a carrier channel 60 that may include a 1 st service-base level channel 62 to ensure that the data of the service has the bandwidth regardless of the rest of the carrier channel. Thus, the remainder of the channel 64 may transmit various sets of non-guard data (e.g., compressed video signal 1, compressed video signal 2, and compressed video signal 3 in this example) over the non-guard channel 64. In the example shown in fig. 2, the base protection traffic exceeds the base level several times, but at least the base level bandwidth is always guaranteed. The bandwidth requirements for aggregating unprotected data channels may vary for several reasons. The 1 st reason is that the customer setting up data in a non-protected channel may contain variable bit rate digital video data streams due to varying bandwidth requirements. 2 since no user is currently using a particular customer service, the remultiplexer can downgrade one or more of the data streams in the non-protected channels 64 as commanded by the bandwidth manager.

Fig. 3 illustrates an example of a carrier channel 70 that may comprise a 1 st base level 72 (for IP data in this example), a 2 nd base level 76 (for digital image in this example), and a non-protected channel 74 that is available for carrying customer traffic both at the 1 st base level 72 and at the 2 nd base level 76. Thus, in accordance with the present invention, a bandwidth manager may establish and manage one or more additional base levels within a given carrier channel. By employing a configuration tool in the bandwidth manager, one or more base levels can be configured to rise or fall to different levels depending on the time of day, past or current utilization level.

In accordance with the present invention, the present system can provide quality of service (QoS) to degraded or removed from multiplexing digital video customer service without customer CPE tuning using various methods used by the bandwidth manager. The method used by the bandwidth manager comprises the following steps: (1) ring buffer, (2) I-frame carousel, (3) base level protection system, (4) head end based MPEG splicing.

Ring buffer method specifically, a ring buffer of the customer service data is established in a remultiplexer for the MPEG-2 digital broadcast television customer service that has been completely removed from the multiplex.

In particular, a ring buffer is a continuous stream of all the data required for a real-time digital image customer service, which are stored in a remultiplexer Random Access Memory (RAM) which is the actual body of the buffer, the digital video data of this stored stream containing a group of pictures (GOP) specified by the MPEG-2 specification. Each GOP begins with an "I-frame". To maintain the current data of the real-time stream in the buffer, the I-frame of the next GOP is entered into the remultiplexer to delete the stored GOP as soon as possible and replace it with the I-frame. The remultiplexer continues to fill the ring buffer with other frames as other frames of the GOP are received until the next I frame replaces the entire GOP. Thus, the buffer consists of partial GOPs or full GOPs at any given time.

The dynamic bandwidth manager may then maintain this ring memory for each digital broadcast television customer service at all times, or may establish and maintain the buffer only at times when no customer CPE is tuned to that customer service. When the bandwidth manager determines that a customer CPE device has tuned to a digital broadcast television customer service that was removed from the transmission multiplex, the manager places some or all of the GOPs in a buffer to be added to the multiplex and includes all subsequent GOPs for that customer service in the multiplex as long as at least one customer CPE remains tuned to that customer service. This approach minimizes the delay or "latency" experienced by a client tuned to send client traffic not currently contained in the multiplex due to the nature of the MPEG-2 compression standard. According to the above standard, the receiving device (i.e. the MPEG-2 decoder) can only start decoding the data stream with I frames. Other types of frames within the GOP, such as B-frames and P-frames, cannot be used to initiate the decoding process. Therefore, if the decoder attempts to begin decoding the data stream, the received frame 1 is not an I-frame, and it is necessary to wait for the I-frame to be received before starting decoding the video data. Most MPEG-2 encoders currently in use generate only one I-frame every 0.5 seconds. Thus, without the above-described ring buffer, a decoder attempting to decode the MPEG-2 video stream added to the multiplex would have to wait as long as 0.5 seconds after finding the stream before starting decoding. The ring buffer immediately provides the I-frame to the MPEG-2 decoder, thereby eliminating this delay.

This approach works where the backhaul latency from the customer CPE to the bandwidth manager is short. In this case, the addition of the customer service back to the information it multiplexes is received quickly enough that the total delay between the time the customer service is requested and the time it is presented on the screen can be tolerated.

For customer services that have degraded but not completely eliminated from the multiplex, the bandwidth manager can ensure that enough data remains in the full time multiplex so that the customer, if tuned to the customer service, can quickly transmit at least the 1 st video frame as a "still frame". The MPEG-2 decoder in the customer CPE can keep the still frame on the tv screen while adding the additional data needed to the multiplex to carry the full video data service. If the transmission system utilizes the MPEG-2 video data encoding standard, this can be accomplished by including at least one I frame per second for each video data stream by multiplexing on each carrier channel. This approach works in situations where the backhaul latency from the customer CPE to the bandwidth manager is long. At this point, the still frame indication will soon get the requested digital video client service.

The base-level protection system may further enhance the system of the present invention so that the customer traffic of digital images, digital voice and data transmitted by the transmission system may be distributed among the carrier channels in a manner that maintains a minimum base-level (see fig. 2 and 3) QoS impact on other customer traffic not protected by the base-level. This can be achieved by allocating digital video data and digital audio data to the carrier channels in a manner that ensures that the average total bit rate of these services in each channel, which are not protected by the base level, does not exceed the total channel bandwidth capacity minus the value obtained by the base level (e.g., ensuring that the digital video data and digital audio data have sufficient bandwidth, if not protected).

CPE-specific PMT and unicast delivery in a typical MPEG-2 digital video system the multiplex of each Multiple Program Transport Stream (MPTS) contains multiple program streams, and all of these streams can be provided to all CPEs that are entitled to receive them. The multiplexer conveys the identification and elementary constituent components of these streams by using MPEG-2 tables called PAT and PMT. After the multiplexer establishes the PAT and PMT for each multiplex, these tables are inserted into the MPTS packet data stream. The CPE uses the PAT, PMT and their Virtual Channel Map (VCM) to position the data needed for a particular program stream. When a new program stream is added to the multiplex or an existing data stream is deleted from the multiplex, the multiplexer must typically establish new PAT and PMT that reflect the new information. The time required to establish new PAT and PMT increases the latency experienced by the end user, and the system of the present invention can be enhanced by dedicating the PMT in a given multiplex to a CPE rather than to a program service. When the CPE requests a new program service, the remultiplexer 38 or digital broadcast television service server 34 replaces the program service data then sent to the CPE with the data requesting the program service, including by using the ring buffer approach described herein. The program service identification number in the PAT and the identifications of the digital images, digital sound and 'elementary streams' of the digital data are not changed, thereby avoiding the waiting time caused by establishing new PAT and PMT.

While the foregoing is directed to particular embodiments of the present invention, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes in this embodiment may be made without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined in the appended claims.

Claims (56)

1. A system for dynamically allocating bandwidth among one or more customer services to provide a switched data network for broadcast data, comprising:

one or more different customer service providers for providing different data to one or more customers, respectively;

one or more service nodes, wherein each service node provides data to one or more customers, and each service node receives a unique multiplex of digital data for its customers; and

and a dynamic bandwidth allocation module for allocating system bandwidth among one or more different customer service providers, wherein the bandwidth allocated to each customer service provider at each service node is dynamically adjusted based on the utilization of the service by the customer and the bandwidth request of each service provider.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the dynamic bandwidth allocation module further comprises: a bandwidth manager that receives bandwidth requests from one or more customer service providers and allocates bandwidth to each of the customer service providers of the service nodes, and a remultiplexer module that generates a multiplex of digital data for each of the service nodes according to the bandwidth allocation decisions of the bandwidth manager.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the customer services include one or more of video on demand, IP data, and broadcast data.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein each service node further comprises a cable modem termination, such that the multiplexing to the service node comprises cable modem IP data.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the bandwidth manager further comprises a decision tree having one or more rules for deciding bandwidth allocation for each service node.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the bandwidth allocation rule further comprises: for each service node, if no client currently uses a particular client service, the bandwidth allocated to that client service is degraded.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the bandwidth allocation comprises one or more of a permanent bandwidth allocation, a time period bandwidth allocation, and a bandwidth allocation per availability.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the bandwidth allocation for each customer service further comprises a maximum bit rate and an average bit rate.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the remultiplexer further includes means for dropping a customer service provider from the multiplex of a particular service node.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the means for dropping further comprises adding dropped customer traffic back to the multiplexed ring buffer with minimal latency.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the ring buffer further comprises MPEG group of pictures containing at least one I-frame, such that customer service is reintroduced into the multiplex with minimal latency.

12. The system of claim 2 wherein the bandwidth manager further comprises means for assigning a quality of service to one or more customer services based on a bandwidth request from a customer service provider.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the quality of service assigner further comprises means for assigning a minimum guaranteed bandwidth to a particular customer service.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the quality of service assigner further comprises means for simultaneously assigning a minimum bandwidth to the plurality of client services.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the quality of service assigner further comprises means for assigning a variable minimum bandwidth to one or more customer services.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the variable minimum bandwidth comprises one or more of a time of day adjustable bandwidth allocation and a utilization adjustable bandwidth allocation.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein the quality of service assigner further comprises means for assigning a quality of service to customer services that have been degraded or eliminated from being multiplexed.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the quality of service assigner further comprises a ring buffer for maintaining a continuous loop of data that will enable reinsertion of degraded or eliminated customer service with minimal latency.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the quality of service assigner further comprises an I-frame carousel for storing at least one I-frame of client service data to restart the client service with minimal latency.

20. The system of claim 2, wherein the remultiplexer further comprises means for assigning a program map table to each consumer premises equipment.

21. A method of dynamically allocating bandwidth among one or more customer services to provide a switched data network for broadcast data, wherein the one or more different customer service providers respectively provide different data to one or more service nodes, the one or more service nodes provide data to one or more customers, and each service node receives a unique multiplex of digital data for its customer, the method comprising:

system bandwidth is allocated among one or more different customer service providers for one or more service nodes, wherein the bandwidth allocated to each customer service provider for each service node is dynamically adjustable based on the service utilization of the customer and the bandwidth request of each service provider.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein dynamic bandwidth allocation further comprises: bandwidth for one or more customer services is managed with a bandwidth manager that receives bandwidth requests from one or more customer service providers and allocates bandwidth to each of the customer service providers of the service nodes, and multiplexing is generated based on bandwidth allocation decisions of the bandwidth manager to generate service node digital data multiplexes based on the bandwidth allocations.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein bandwidth management further comprises using a decision tree with one or more rules for deciding bandwidth allocation to each service node.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the bandwidth allocation rule further comprises: for each service node, if no client currently uses a particular client service, the bandwidth allocated to that client service is degraded.

25. The method of claim 21, wherein the bandwidth allocation comprises one or more of a permanent bandwidth allocation, a time period bandwidth allocation, and a bandwidth allocation per availability.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the bandwidth allocation for each customer service further comprises a maximum bit rate and an average bit rate.

27. The method of claim 21, wherein the generating of the multiplex further comprises dropping a customer service provider from the multiplex for a particular service node.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein dropping further comprises using a ring buffer to add dropped customer service back to the multiplex with minimal latency.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the ring buffer further comprises generating an MPEG group of pictures containing at least one I frame so that the client traffic is reintroduced into the multiplex with minimal latency.

30. The method of claim 22, wherein the bandwidth management further comprises means for assigning a quality of service to one or more customer services based on a bandwidth request from a customer service provider.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the quality of service assignment further comprises assigning a minimum guaranteed bandwidth to a particular customer service.

32. The method of claim 30, wherein quality of service allocation further comprises simultaneously allocating a minimum bandwidth for multiple client services.

33. The method of claim 30, wherein the quality of service assignment further comprises assigning a variable minimum bandwidth to one or more customer services.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the variable minimum bandwidth comprises one or more of a time of day adjustable bandwidth allocation and a utilization adjustable bandwidth allocation.

35. The method of claim 30, wherein quality of service allocation further comprises allocating quality of service to customer traffic that has been degraded or eliminated from multiplexing.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein the quality of service allocation further comprises maintaining a data loop in the ring buffer that will enable reinsertion of degraded or eliminated customer service with minimal latency.

37. The method of claim 35, wherein the quality of service assignment further comprises saving at least one I-frame in an I-frame carousel to restart the client service with minimal latency.

38. The method of claim 22, wherein generating the multiplex further comprises assigning a program map table to each consumer premises equipment.

39. A dynamic bandwidth allocation device, comprising:

a dynamic bandwidth allocator to allocate bandwidth among one or more different customer service providers for one or more service nodes, wherein the bandwidth allocated to each customer service provider for each service node is dynamically adjustable based on the service utilization of the customer and the bandwidth request of each service provider;

the dynamic bandwidth allocator further comprises: a bandwidth manager that receives bandwidth requests from one or more customer service providers and allocates bandwidth to each of the customer service providers of the service nodes, and a remultiplexer module that generates a multiplex of digital data for each of the service nodes according to the bandwidth allocation decisions of the bandwidth manager.

40. The apparatus of claim 39, wherein the customer services include one or more of video on demand, IP data, and broadcast data.

41. The apparatus of claim 39, wherein the bandwidth manager further comprises a decision tree having one or more rules for deciding bandwidth allocation for each service node.

42. The apparatus of claim 41, wherein the bandwidth allocation rule further comprises: for each service node, if no client currently uses a particular client service, the bandwidth allocated to that client service is degraded.

43. The apparatus of claim 39, wherein the bandwidth allocation comprises one or more of a permanent bandwidth allocation, a time period bandwidth allocation, and a bandwidth allocation per availability.

44. The apparatus of claim 43, wherein the bandwidth allocation for each customer service further comprises a maximum bit rate and an average bit rate.

45. The apparatus of claim 39, wherein the remultiplexer further comprises means for dropping a customer service provider from the multiplex for a particular service node.

46. The apparatus of claim 45, wherein the means for dropping further comprises adding dropped customer traffic back to the multiplexed ring buffer with minimal latency.

47. The apparatus of claim 46, wherein the ring buffer further comprises MPEG groups of pictures containing at least one I-frame, such that customer service is reintroduced into the multiplex with minimal latency.

48. The apparatus of claim 39, wherein the bandwidth manager further comprises means for assigning a quality of service to one or more customer services based on a bandwidth request from a customer service provider.

49. The apparatus of claim 48, wherein the quality of service assigner further comprises means for assigning a minimum guaranteed bandwidth to a particular customer service.

50. The apparatus of claim 48, wherein the quality of service assigner further comprises means for simultaneously assigning a minimum bandwidth to the multiple customer services.

51. The apparatus of claim 48, wherein the quality of service assigner further comprises means for assigning a variable minimum bandwidth to one or more customer services.

52. The apparatus of claim 51, wherein the variable minimum bandwidth comprises one or more of a time of day adjustable bandwidth allocation and a utilization adjustable bandwidth allocation.

53. The apparatus of claim 48, wherein the quality of service assigner further comprises means for assigning a quality of service to customer services that have been degraded or eliminated from multiplexing.

54. The apparatus of claim 53, wherein the quality of service allocator further comprises a ring buffer for maintaining a continuous loop of data that will enable reinsertion of degraded or eliminated customer service with minimal latency.

55. The apparatus of claim 53, wherein the quality of service assigner further comprises an I-frame carousel for storing at least one I-frame of client service data to restart the client service with minimal latency.

56. The apparatus of claim 39, wherein the remultiplexer further comprises means for assigning a program map table to each consumer premises equipment.