Patent ID: 8627387

Claim:
A method of distributing logical content in a Video on Demand (VoD) network, comprising: receiving, from a network node, a first request for logical content comprising a subset of a VoD media file, the subset defined by predetermined start and end times measured from a temporal start point within the VoD media file at least one of the start time and end time being different from the beginning and end of the VoD media file; transmitting, to the requesting node, a URL associated with the VoD media file, the start and end times defining the logical content, and byte-range markers defining offsets into the VoD media file corresponding to the start and end times, wherein the byte-range markers have a null value; receiving, from the first requesting node, non-null values for the byte-range markers; storing the non-null byte-range markers; receiving, from one or more network nodes, one or more subsequent requests for the same logical content; and transmitting, to each subsequent requesting node, a URL associated with the VoD media file, the start and end times defining the logical content, and the non-null byte-range markers corresponding to the start and end times.