Patent ID: 7913282

Claim:
A method of managing in a centralized way video frames stored in memory buffers of a plurality of video clients (client buffers) of a Video-on-Demand System comprising the steps of: providing a manager, called the DCM (Distributed Cooperative Memory) manager, that receives requests and notifications sent by said video clients over a communication network and keeps this information in a client table to calculate the video frames that are in said client buffers; said DCM manager updating said client table upon receiving said requests and notifications sent by said video clients; said video clients cooperating with said DCM manager, making available the video frames that are in their said client buffers; said video clients serving the requests sent by said DCM manager to transmit one or more flows of video frames (video flows) to other said video clients, obeying a transmission rate and amount of video frames that are specified by said DCM manager to provide said video flows in a streaming mode; said video clients sending said notifications to the DCM manager regarding whether or not the requests made by said DCM manager were accomplished; said video clients sending said notifications to said DCM manager whenever said client buffer reaches an insufficient or an excessive amount of video frames; said video clients sending said notification to said DCM manager whenever transmission delays or loss of video frames occurs that lead said client buffer to reach an insufficient or an excessive amount of video frames; and said video clients keeping a table with information on the video frames and their relative positions in the client buffer and using the information held in said table to answer the requests sent by said DCM manager; wherein said video clients have a supplementary client buffer for use by said DCM manager.