Patent ID: 8438301

Claim:
In a computer networking environment comprising a plurality of computing systems including a client computer system and a server computer system connected over a client-server connection, a method for optimizing data flow based on the data's encoded bit rate, the method comprising: an act of a server computer system receiving a request from a client computer system for data that is to be transferred to the client computer system; subsequent to receiving the request from the client computer system, an act of the server computer system accessing a portion of the requested data, the requested data including both an initial amount of data encoded at a bit rate to be transferred to the client computer system as an initial data burst, as well as remaining data encoded at the same bit rate as the initial amount of data to be transferred to the client computer system subsequent to the initial data burst; an act of the server computer system determining the encoded bit rate of the requested data from the accessed portion of the requested data; based on the determined encoded bit rate of the requested data: an act of the server computer system determining a size of the initial amount of data that is to be transferred to the client computer system at the encoded bit rate and at a first transfer rate to enable prompt access to that portion of data, the first transfer rate being greater than the encoded bit rate; and prior to transferring the initial amount of data or the remaining data to the client computer system, an act of the server computer system determining a second transfer rate for transferring the remaining data to the client computer system, the second transfer rate for the remaining data being lower than the first transfer rate for the initial amount of data and equal to or greater than the encoded bit rate; subsequent to determining the second transfer rate for transferring the remaining data to the client computer system, an act of the server computer system transferring the initial amount of data to the client computer system at the encoded bit rate and at the first transfer rate, which is greater than the encoded bit rate, as the initial data burst; and an act of the server computer system transferring the remainder of the requested data to the client computer system at the same encoded bit rate as the initial amount of data and at the second transfer rate which is lower than the first transfer rate, subsequent to transferring the initial amount of data at the encoded bit rate and at the first transfer rate.