Patent ID: 8897302
Filing Date: 2014-11-25
Classification: H04L,H04N

Abstract:
1. A method providing reliability in a multicasting communications system having a communications path between a server side of the communications system and a client side of the communications system, the communications path comprising a shared forward link over which bandwidth resources are shared, the method comprising: observing a first request for an object, wherein the first request originates from a first user system; observing, at a server, a response to the first request for the object; determining, at the server, that the object is a multicast candidate; multicasting the object over the communications path to the first user system and a second user system, wherein the first user system is different than the second user system; storing, at the server, packets of the object for retransmission; receiving, at the server, a reliability message from the first user system identifying holes in a page data map of the object; communicating a first object repair message to the first user, wherein the first object repair message comprises at least a portion of the packets of the object stored at the server for retransmission; receiving, at the server, a second request for the object after communicating the first object repair message to the first user system, wherein the second request originates from the second user system; and communicating a second object repair message to the second user system in response to the second request for the object.