Patent ID: 8301696

Claim:
A method for delivering media content from a server to a client, the method comprising: providing a plurality of network abstraction layer (NAL) units representing a scalable media presentation, each NAL unit being associated with one layer of a plurality of layers; grouping the plurality of NAL units into a plurality of media data groups, each media data group corresponding to only one layer of the plurality of layers for a specific time period of the scalable media presentation; providing a server index comprising a plurality of server index entries, each server index entry corresponding to only one of the plurality of media data groups and comprising a media data group identifier for identifying the corresponding media data group, a quality identifier for identifying a quality level of the corresponding media data group and a layer identifier for identifying the layer associated with the corresponding media data group; receiving at least one media request from the client, the at least one media request comprising a scalable media presentation identifier for identifying the scalable media presentation, a requested quality identifier and a requested layer identifier; and for each at least one media request: determining a requested index entry in the plurality of server index entries based on the scalable media presentation identifier, the requested quality identifier and the requested layer identifier; identifying a requested media data group based on the media data group identifier of the requested index entry; and transmitting the requested media data group.