Patent ID: 7849163

Claim:
A proxy for transferring a Very Large File (VLF) from a content provider to a requesting node via a network comprising: a) a communication interface coupled to the network; b) memory forming proxy cache; and c) a control system facilitating a transfer of the VLF to the requesting node and adapted to: i) receive a request for the VLF from the requesting node via the communication interface, wherein the VLF has been processed by the content provider to provide a chunked VLF comprising a plurality of chunks; and ii) when there is at least one chunk of the plurality of chunks stored in the proxy cache: A) request additional chunks of the plurality of chunks other than the at least one chunk of the plurality of chunks stored in the proxy cache from the content provider via the communication interface, wherein in order to request the additional chunks from the content provider, the control system is further adapted to: obtain an offset of a last one of the at least one chunk of the plurality of chunks stored in the proxy cache; obtain a time-stamp indicating a time at which the chunked VLF was last modified from the proxy cache; and send the offset and the time-stamp to the content provider as a request for the additional chunks; B) receive the additional chunks from the content provider via the communication interface, wherein if there is an interruption during the transfer before each of the additional chunks is received by the proxy, the control system is further adapted to store in the proxy cache at least a portion of the additional chunks received prior to the interruption of the transfer and the at least one chunk in order to serve subsequent requests for the VLF; and C) provide the at least one chunk and the additional chunks to the requesting node via the communication interface.