Patent ID: 8904463

Claim:
A method for distributing a live program over a distributed network, the method being performed by a server and comprising: processing a data stream representing the live program into a plurality of substreams, a number of substreams being based, at least in part, on an availability of bandwidth across devices in the network, each of the substreams comprising decimated samples of the data stream, wherein the processing of the data stream is continuously performed until the live program ends; identifying a plurality of devices in the network that are idle; selecting a set of seeding devices from the plurality of devices to receive at least one substream of the plurality of substreams; transmitting the plurality of substreams to the set of seeding devices with a sourcing instruction, wherein the sourcing instruction instructs the set of seeding devices to transmit specific substreams of the plurality of substreams to specific devices of others of the plurality of devices as the plurality of substreams are received, the seeding devices further transmitting the sourcing instruction to the others of the plurality of devices, the sourcing instruction instructing the others of the plurality of devices to transmit one or more substreams of the plurality of substreams to still other devices of the plurality of devices; and configuring a plurality of suppliers from the plurality of devices to provide the plurality of substreams to one or more ordering devices in response to the one or more ordering devices requesting to the server to view or listen to the live program so that the live program can be played back on the one or more ordering devices.