Patent ID: 9083640
Filing Date: 2015-07-14
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method comprising: determining, by a computing device, data describing a temporal variability of a bit rate of a first bitstream; receiving, by the computing device, the first bitstream through a communication channel; determining, by the computing device, a throughput for the communication channel; comparing, by the computing device, the throughput of the communication channel with the data describing the temporal variability of the bit rate of the first bitstream to determine a variance of the first bitstream from the throughput for the communication channel for a portion of a media program not already received; determining, by the computing device, an amount of data currently buffered in a buffer for the media program; and comparing, by the computing device, the amount of data currently buffered to the variance for the portion to determine whether to switch to receiving a second bitstream, wherein the second bitstream has a different bit rate from the first bitstream.