Patent ID: 8316146

Claim:
A method for distribution of data in a network based on peer-to-peer streaming of media content, the network including a plurality of peers and a central server, the method including: encoding, at the central server, an original stream of media content into a first number of different sub-streams, wherein each sub-stream in the first number of sub-streams comprises a plurality of sub-blocks, each sub-stream being encoded in a manner that any given sub-block from a selected sub-stream can be combined with certain corresponding sub-blocks from other sub-streams to yield the original stream, wherein such sub-blocks combine to form a second number of sub-streams that can be combined to obtain the original stream, wherein the second number of different sub-streams is greater than one and less than the first number of sub-streams; retrieving, at at least one peer, a number of sub-streams equivalent to the second number of sub-streams from the central server and a number of the other peers, wherein each of the retrieved sub-streams is different from the other retrieved sub-streams; transmitting, by at least one peer, and on request, a sub-stream to another peer; replacing downloading of a sub-stream from one of the peers with downloading of another, different or identical, sub-stream from the central server, or from another of the peers, when it is determined that the amount of sub-stream data from said one of the peers is below a predefined amount of data in a reception buffer, wherein said another sub-stream is chosen such that each sub-stream of the retrieved sub-streams is different from the other sub-streams in the retrieved sub-streams; and replacing downloading of a sub-stream from the central server with downloading of another, different or identical, sub-stream from one of the peers, when a predefined condition is fulfilled.