Patent ID: 7778175

Claim:
Method of managing a request for remote access to a multimedia content from among a plurality of multimedia contents provided by a server in digital data stream form, allowing a transmission of a set of data streams provided by the said server to a distribution network as a function of a capacity threshold of the said distribution network, wherein that the said digital data streams are of the variable-throughput type, at least one data throughput profile being associated with each stream, said at least one data throughput profile giving an instantaneous throughput at each instant t of a duration Tn of transmission of said multimedia content, and in that for at least part of the remote access requests received, the management method comprises a step of determining at least one instant of insertion of a data stream corresponding to a request received, as a function of a first throughput profile corresponding to the set of streams in progress, and of a second throughput profile corresponding to the throughput profile associated with the stream corresponding to the said request, the said instant of insertion being able to correspond to an instantaneous insertion of the requested stream, or a delayed insertion, the step of determining at least one instant of insertion comprising a verification of at least one first condition over a corresponding insertion time window, defined from a first instant of insertion over a duration corresponding to a transmission time of the requested stream, the instant of insertion being chosen as a function of the result of the verification, the first condition being satisfied if the total data throughput corresponding to a sum of the said first profile and of the said second profile is less than or equal to the said capacity threshold of the said distribution network.