Techniques disclosed herein include systems and methods for excluding specific application traffic from customer consumption-based data billing counts. This is useful for excluding traffic from consumption totals where the application traffic has been accounted for using other means, such as through billing as a separate or technically distinct service. In practice, a tablet computer (or other end user device) can run a video application that uses a high-speed data network via a cable modem. This video application may be included as part of a core video package associated with a distinct cable television service. The system then provides accurate consumption billing of customer traffic that is outside of any other managed services by creating separate logical data service flows at a Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS) for excluding specific traffic counts.

A transmission apparatus capable of ensuring transmission quality when switching one of duplicated video data items transmitted using different transmission paths, to the other thereof, for display. Encoding sections A and B perform first and second encoding processing for generating first and second data based on video data, respectively, so as to transmit the first and second data to a reception apparatus via first and second transmission paths, respectively. Information on a skew between the first and second data received by the reception apparatus via the first and second transmission paths is acquired, for controlling at least one of the encoding sections A and B based on the skew information such that the skew is reduced.

A satellite reception assembly may comprise a housing configured to support receipt and handling of a plurality of satellite signals. The housing may comprise circuitry incorporating integrated stacking architecture for supporting and/or providing channel and/or band stacking whereby particular channels or bands, from multiple satellite signals that are received via the satellite reception assembly, may be combined onto a single output signal that may be communicated from the satellite reception assembly to a gateway device for concurrent distribution thereby to a plurality of client devices serviced by the gateway device.

A satellite reception assembly may comprise a housing configured to support receipt and handling of a plurality of satellite signals. The housing may comprise circuitry incorporating integrated stacking architecture for supporting and/or providing channel and/or band stacking whereby particular channels or bands, from multiple satellite signals that are received via the satellite reception assembly, may be combined onto a single output signal that may be communicated from the satellite reception assembly to a gateway device for concurrent distribution thereby to a plurality of client devices serviced by the gateway device.

Methods, systems, apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for generating and routing modified multimedia data frames. In one aspect, the method includes maintaining, by a first network node, channel membership data that includes data indicating, for each channel of a plurality of channels, leaf node membership for a plurality of channels, and for each channel of the plurality of channels: determining, based on the channel membership data, the leaf nodes that are subscribed to access the channel, generating, based on the leaf nodes that are subscribed to access the channel, a modified multimedia data frame for the channel that includes (i) a hub node identifier, (ii) data that describes a destination address of each leaf node that is subscribed to access the channel and (iii) a payload, and transmitting, by the first network node, the generated modified multimedia data frame to a second network node.

Methods, systems, apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for generating and routing modified multimedia data frames. In one aspect, the method includes maintaining, by a first network node, channel membership data that includes data indicating, for each channel of a plurality of channels, leaf node membership for a plurality of channels, and for each channel of the plurality of channels: determining, based on the channel membership data, the leaf nodes that are subscribed to access the channel, generating, based on the leaf nodes that are subscribed to access the channel, a modified multimedia data frame for the channel that includes (i) a hub node identifier, (ii) data that describes a destination address of each leaf node that is subscribed to access the channel and (iii) a payload, and transmitting, by the first network node, the generated modified multimedia data frame to a second network node.

A profile provider: (i) associates a primary online device (OD1) with a set-top box (STB); (ii) a location of OD1 at some point in time is estimated to be near the STB, thereby establishing a STB proxy location; (iii) one or more secondary online devices (OD2s) are observed to be located near the STB proxy location and are associated with the STB; and (iv) a television advertisement is selected to be directed to the STB, which selection is based at least in part on profile information linked to one of the associated OD2s. The method can be particularly advantageous in situations wherein: the STB is not connected to any computer network; the STB is not ever connected to the same local area network as OD1 or OD2; or television service (used by the STB) and online access (used by OD1 and OD2s) are provided by different service providers.

Certain examples accommodate data routing optimizations. An example method comprises receiving, by a first playback device, data to be directed to at least a second playback device, the data comprising: i) audio data and ii) non-audio data. The method comprises transmitting, by the first playback device, the non-audio data to the second playback device via a third playback device according to a network protocol for communication between the first playback device and at least the second playback device via a wireless communication link. The method further comprises determining, by the first playback device, that a signal strength of the wireless communication link is above a threshold, and in response to the determination, transmitting the audio data to the second playback device via the wireless communication link, wherein transmitting the audio data comprises transmitting the audio data over the wireless communication link not according to the network protocol.

Certain examples accommodate data routing optimizations. An example method comprises receiving, by a first playback device, data to be directed to at least a second playback device, the data comprising: i) audio data and ii) non-audio data. The method comprises transmitting, by the first playback device, the non-audio data to the second playback device via a third playback device according to a network protocol for communication between the first playback device and at least the second playback device via a wireless communication link. The method further comprises determining, by the first playback device, that a signal strength of the wireless communication link is above a threshold, and in response to the determination, transmitting the audio data to the second playback device via the wireless communication link, wherein transmitting the audio data comprises transmitting the audio data over the wireless communication link not according to the network protocol.

An aspect of providing communications services to Internet Protocol-enabled devices includes storing, in an account of the subscriber, a globally unique identifier for each of a plurality of the devices associated with the subscriber. For each of the devices, the globally unique identifier is appended to a network address of the subscriber in the account, where each of the devices is uniquely addressable via the appended globally unique identifier and network address. An aspect also includes provisioning a subscriber-selected communications service for the account, and assigning to the account subscriber-selected permissions for defining access to features of the communications service for individuals specified in the account with respect to a corresponding device. The permissions are assigned based on a combined user identifier and corresponding globally unique identifier. An aspect further includes providing the communications service to the individuals associated with the account subject to the permissions.