Patent ID: 8578045

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, at a media receiver, a portion of streaming media content transmitted from a media server over a network in response to a first content request sent by the media receiver, the media server having a flow control mechanism that transmits an amount of data the media receiver based on a Transport Control Protocol (TCP) window; issuing, by the media receiver, a second content request for a next portion of the streaming media content to the media server; detecting, at the media receiver, a response to the second content request that contains data corresponding to the next portion of the streaming media content; downloading, at the media receiver, the data corresponding to the next portion of the streaming media content to a buffer for holding the data for playback; monitoring, at the media receiver, a plurality of throughput characteristics comprising latency in receiving the response, changes in transfer rate of the response, and a time between completion of the first content request and initiation of the second content request; determining, by the media receiver, that the TCP window is increasing based on the latency and the changes in transfer rate; detecting, at the media receiver, that the data downloaded to the buffer will result in no subsequent content requests being issued for a period longer than the time between completion of the first content request and initiation of the second content request; and adjusting, by the media receiver, parameters for issuing subsequent content requests to the media server based on the throughput characteristics, wherein the subsequent content requests are smaller and issued more frequently than previous requests to avoid reduction of the TCP window by the flow control mechanism of the media server.