Patent ID: 8909807

Claim:
A method for transferring content from a sending system to a receiving system, the sending system and the receiving system being part of a network configured to handle a first network traffic and a second network traffic, the second network traffic having a higher priority than the first network traffic, the method comprising: receiving segments of a requested content file comprising a plurality of segments in a buffer of the receiving system, wherein the segments are sent by the sending system over the network using surplus network capacity, the surplus network capacity being an amount of network capacity determined to be available at a given time period for handling the first network traffic without adversely affecting the second network traffic in the network by sending the segments to the receiving system when surplus network capacity is available and by not sending the segments to the receiving system when surplus capacity is not available; determining a buffer fill rate for the buffer; determining a pre-fill threshold for the buffer dependent upon the determined buffer fill rate; and initiating play out of the requested content file from the buffer after the buffer is filled to the determined pre-fill threshold.