Patent ID: 6757796
Filing Date: 2004-06-29
Classification: H04L,H04N

Abstract:
In a network having a content server which hosts a plurality of live streaming multimedia (SM) broadcast objects for distribution over said network through a plurality of helper servers (HSs) to a plurality of clients, a method of reducing start-up latency associated with distributing said plurality of live SM broadcast objects from said content server and said plurality of HSs to said plurality of clients, said method comprising:receiving a first request from one of said plurality of clients for one of said plurality of live SM broadcast objects at one of said plurality of HSs; determining whether said first request can be partially serviced from a pre-configured playout history (PH) buffer allocated in a memory associated with said one of said plurality of HSs; and partially servicing said first request from said pre-configured PH buffer at a first data rate, if said determining step is satisfied, the first data rate being higher than a standard data rate associated with servicing the first request from a non pre-configured PH buffer.