Patent ID: 8861929

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving a playlist referencing a sequence of stream segments associated with an asset, wherein the playlist references a set of playlists that reference different bit rates, and wherein the sequence of stream segments is a subset of the entirety of segments associated with the asset; selecting one of the playlists in the set; downloading at least one of the sequence of stream segments in the selected playlist; establishing a unique state associated with a subscriber requesting the asset, wherein the state is different than the state for a second subscriber requesting the same asset; determining whether the rate of delivery is too high or too low based on network conditions and the subscriber state; requesting a different one of the playlists referencing a different bit rate than the previously selected playlist based on the rate delivery determination receiving an updated state specific to the subscriber; and providing the subscriber with a dynamically updated playlist containing a subset of the entirety of the sequence of stream segments based on the received state.