Patent ID: 6882639

Claim:
A method of delivering a streamed multimedia service from a first terminal to a second terminal, both terminals being directly connected to a first network and indirectly connected to at least one second network via respective access networks, each terminal comprising a respective terminal middleware, wherein the first and second terminal and each of the at least one second network are connected to a common network middleware, the method comprising the steps of: the terminal middlewares in the first and second terminals establishing a session through the first network; the first terminal transmitting a first plurality of multimedia streams to the second terminal across the first network, each stream being associated with a respective desired quality of service (QoS), measuring the QoS of each of the first plurality of streams and deriving a delivered viewing quality therefrom; comparing the delivered viewing quality of the multimedia service to a specified viewing quality; and if the delivered viewing quality is interior to the specified viewing quality: the first or second terminal sending a message to the network middleware, thereby requesting to use resources in the access networks and the at least one second network, the network middleware verifying whether sufficient resources exist in the access networks and the at least one second network without using resources in the first network; and if sufficient resources exist in the access networks and the at least one second network: the network middleware granting the request; the terminal middlewares in the first and second terminals establishing a connection through the access network and the at least one second network; and the first terminal transmitting at least one stream to the second terminal across the access networks and the at least one second network during said session.