Patent ID: 6947388

Claim:
A method for media delivery in a network, comprising the steps of: (a) determining an available bandwidth for file transmission for a time interval, comprising the steps of: (a1) updating a total available bandwidth for the time interval, comprising the steps of: (a1i) reading from a plurality of database tables a plurality of live-video stream (LVS) jobs to begin during the time interval, (a1ii) allocating bandwidth to the plurality of LVS jobs not yet allocated bandwidth, and (a1iii) recording the allocated bandwidth to the plurality of LVS jobs in the plurality of database tables, and (a2) checking for the available bandwidth for file transmission for the time interval, comprising the steps of: (a2i) updating a global step function (GSF), (a2ii) determining if enough bandwidth is available for file transmissions, (a2iii) sending an indication if there is not enough bandwidth available for file transmission, and (a2iv) finding a bandwidth strip which begins at a current time, fits under the GSF, has at least a minimum amount of bandwidth that must be allocated to a file transmission task, and does not extend, in the X/time-direction, beyond a latest delivery time (LDT) of the at least one transmission task; and (b) allocating at least a portion of the available bandwidth to at least one file transmission task, wherein each of the at least one file transmission task may be allocated a different amount of the available bandwidth.