Patent ID: 8135040

Claim:
A method comprising: replicating a media stream to provide a multicast bouquet having multiple burst streams, wherein a number of the multiple burst streams of the multicast bouquet is set at least in part according to a desired channel change delay time; and multicasting the multiple burst streams of the multicast bouquet via a communication channel, wherein the multiple burst streams are separated in the communication channel by a temporal offset time shorter than a duration time of a group of pictures (GOP) of the media stream, and wherein individual burst streams comprise: at least one burst segment portion transmittable at a first rate for a first time period, wherein the first rate comprises a nominal bandwidth rate of the communication channel and an excess bandwidth rate of the communication channel; and at least one other burst segment portion transmittable at a second rate for a second time period, wherein the second rate comprises the excess bandwidth rate of the communication channel and the second time period is subsequent to the first time period, wherein the temporal offset time is set responsive to the desired channel change delay time.