Patent ID: 8250232

Claim:
A content delivery network (CDN) for delivering content over the Internet to an end user system where a bitrate to supply a content object to the end user system is variable, the CDN comprising: a processor configured to: pass a request to deliver the content object toward an end user system; cause retrieving information, wherein the information allows determining: characteristics of an access network that couples the end user system to the Internet, characteristics of the content object, and/or characteristics of the CDN; cause choosing an algorithm from a plurality of algorithms based, at least in part, on the information, wherein each of the algorithms includes a different systematic variation across a plurality of bitrates; cause downloading of one or more test content objects at a first bitrate and increasing or decreasing the bitrate from the first bitrate to a second bitrate according to an algorithm; determine that a performance of the download at the second bitrate exceeded a performance of the download at the first bitrate; and cause passing at least part of the content object with the end user system at the second bitrate; and a memory coupled with the processor.