Patent ID: 8880719

Claim:
A method for delivering, over a network, streaming media content from at least one source to a plurality of clients, the method comprising the actions of: determining, at an application layer of a network protocol, if at least one client of the plurality of clients desires to receive streaming content from the at least one source; multicasting a first streaming content to at least one client of the plurality of clients; and terminating the multicast of the first streaming content upon a determination that none of the plurality of clients desires to continue to receive the first streaming content, wherein the step of determining if at least one client of the plurality of clients desires to receive streaming content from the at least one source comprises evaluating regularly received polling messages from one or more clients of the plurality of clients indicative of a desire by one or more clients to continue to receive streaming content from the at least one source, and wherein the step of determining if at least one client of the plurality of clients desires to receive streaming content from the at least one source comprises determining that no client desires to receive the streaming media content if a polling message has not been received within a predetermined time after a previous polling message has been received.