Patent ID: 7593326

Claim:
A method for managing bandwidth for transmitting the content of a video to one or more users requesting receipt of the content of the video, each user belonging to a user service class, said method comprising: a computer dividing the total time duration T of the video into N consecutive sessions S 1 , S 2 , . . . , S N , wherein N is at least 2, and wherein a unicast or multicast connection in normal play mode is permitted to be created for each session only at one of discrete times T 0 , T 1 , . . . , T N−1 subject to T i =iΔT and ΔT=T/N for i=0, 1, . . . , N−1; said computer establishing an overall bandwidth B for transmitting the content of the video to the one or more users; and said computer dividing the overall bandwidth B into a first bandwidth part B 1 and a second bandwidth part B 2 such that B=B 1 +B 2 , wherein the first bandwidth part B 1 is allocated to a normal play mode of the video during the N sessions such that B 1 =N*R, wherein R is a bit transmission rate of the video, and wherein the second bandwidth part B 2 is allocated to unicast sessions dedicated to implementation of at least one non-normal streaming mode of the video.