Patent ID: 7881335

Claim:
A method of client-side bandwidth allocation, the method comprising the steps of: receiving, at a first rate, at least one continuous media stream; receiving a discrete media stream, while receiving the at least one continuous media stream; if a source of the continuous media stream is adapted to support the continuous media stream at a second rate lower than the first rate, then receiving the at least one continuous media stream at the second rate while receiving the discrete media stream; if the at least one continuous media stream is from a stored media file and the source of the continuous media stream is not adapted to support the continuous media stream at the second rate, then applying a slowdown playout factor adapted to reduce a playout rate of the at least one continuous media stream, while receiving the discrete media stream; if the at least one continuous media stream is transmitted as a live stream and the source of the continuous media stream is not adapted to support the continuous media stream at the second rate, then applying an application-level throttling adapted to slowdown transmission of the at least one continuous media stream, while receiving the discrete media stream; and receiving the at least one continuous media stream at the first rate, after the discrete media stream is no longer being received by the client.