METHOD AND APPARATUS OF LOAD SHARING AND IMPROVING FAULT TOLERANCE IN AN INTERACTIVE VIDEO DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM

摘要

Apparatus and method providing improved fault tolerance through redundancy ofhardware and software suitable for use in a head-end of an interactiveinformation distribution system. Communications between each of a head-endcontrollers (130) and each of the server modules (106) are coincidentally sentalong at least two signal paths (111) to provide to additional fault tolerancein the event one of the signal paths becomes inoperable. In one embodiment, avideo switch (113) comprises a plurality of I/O ports (320) coupled between aplurality of server modules (106) and a plurality of subscriber equipment(124) for transferring video information between the server (102) and thesubscriber equipment (124). A primary and secondary switch controller (144)are each coupled to the head-end controllers (130) and the plurality of I/Oports (320). The primary switch controller is used for routing data packetscontaining said video information between the plurality of I/O ports. Thesecondary switch controller monitors status of the primary switch controllerand I/O ports and initiates a switchover event in an instance where theprimary switch controller exhibits a failure.