Patent ID: 9591044
Date: 2017-03-07
CPC Classifications: H04L,H04N

Claim:
1. A method comprising: maintaining a plurality of channel buffers at a content server, the content server operable to provide a plurality of media streams to a plurality of devices, wherein the plurality of channel buffers are prefilled and refreshed with the plurality of media streams including first media content encoded at a plurality of different quality levels; receiving a first request for first media content from a user, the first request identifying a first bandwidth and a first position in the first media content; selecting a first media stream from the plurality of media streams by using first bandwidth characteristics corresponding to a first device, wherein the first media stream is a live stream; transmitting the first media stream to the user beginning with packets having timestamps corresponding to the first position; receiving a stop request for the first media content from the first device, wherein the first media stream continues to buffer at the content server even after receiving the stop request from the first device such that the user may resume the first media stream at a later time without missing portions of the first media stream; receiving a second request for first media content from the user, the second request identifying a second bandwidth and a second position in the first media content; selecting a second media stream from the plurality of media streams by using second bandwidth characteristics corresponding to a second device; transmitting the second media stream to the user beginning with packets having timestamps corresponding to the second position, wherein the user makes the first request from the first device and the second request from the second device different from the first device.