Patent ID: 8495237

Claim:
A computer-implemented method, comprising: providing, from a server including one or more processors, a media stream encoded at a first bit rate to a mobile computing device; obtaining, at the server, a predicted route of the mobile computing device, the predicted route corresponding to a route likely to be traveled by the mobile computing device; determining, at the server, whether the predicted route travels through an area of reduced network capabilities; and when the predicted route travels through the area of reduced network capabilities: obtaining, at the server, a network performance estimate corresponding to a data rate that the mobile computing device is expected to receive within the area of reduced network capabilities; determining, at the server, an estimated amount of time for the mobile computing device to travel through the area of reduced network capabilities, determining, at the server, a playback time of a media buffer of the mobile computing device based on a buffer size of the media buffer and the network performance estimate, the playback time corresponding to an amount of time to exhaust the media buffer when the mobile computing device is traveling in the area of reduced network capabilities, when the playback time value is less than the estimated amount of time: determining, at the server, a second bit rate for encoding the media stream based on the buffer size and the estimated amount of time, the second bit rate being less than the first bit rate, determining, at the server, a time to begin providing the media stream encoded at the second bit rate based on the buffer size, the estimated amount of time, the first bit rate, and the second bit rate, and beginning to provide, from the server, the media stream encoded at the second bit rate to the mobile computing device at the time.