Patent ID: 6850965

Claim:
A method of bandwidth allocation for delivery of stored digital content from at least one server device to at least one client device by way of a network, the method comprising the steps of: a) prescribing a control variable which represents a target flow rate of content from the server device to each client device by: i) forming a hyperplane of control variables that aggregate to a maximum allowed aggregate flow rate; ii) computing a first vector of minimum allowed client flow rates; iii) computing a second vector of maximum allowed client flow rates; iv) determining a multi-dimensional shape of which an interior diagonal spans the first and second vectors; and v) finding a solution of control variables at a point of intersection between the diagonal and the hyperplane; b) determining time-varying constraints on the target flow rate of the content; c) determining a cost function of the control variables for all clients wherein the cost function represents an aggregate flow rate and is a sum of all flow rates for all clients; and d) prescribing bandwidth to all clients based upon a value of the control variables that maximize the cost function.