Patent ID: 7403993

Claim:
A server system for time-based media streaming comprising: a plurality of servers coupled for communication with each other, said plurality of servers including a first server; and a computer readable storage medium at said first server storing therein asset information that is replicated in a computer readable storage medium associated with at least one other server; wherein said first server is configured to: receive a request for an asset from a client coupled to the server system; determine if the request should be forwarded to another server before responding to the client, wherein said determination is based on existence of at least one of a plurality of conditions consisting of: that the asset does not exist at the first server; that sufficient resources do not exist to stream the asset from the first server; and that a current load on the first server is over a threshold limit; find in the server system a second server capable of streaming the asset in response to the determination that the request should be forwarded; cause the request from the client to be sent to the second server after the second server is located; and determine if said asset is a hot asset, and if said asset is determined to be a hot asset, then copying information associated with said asset to said second server including copying at least one of: (a) a prefix of said asset to said second server, and (b) copying the asset to the second server and streaming the prefix of the asset from the second server.