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System for and method of streaming data to a computer in a network

  • US 7,321,936 B2
  • Filed: 04/18/2002
  • Issued: 01/22/2008
  • Est. Priority Date: 04/18/2002
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A method of streaming data from a first server to one or more client computers, the first server in communication with the one or more client computers in a network through a corresponding number of client interfaces, the method comprising the steps of:

  • issuing one or more requests to the first server to download contents of a plurality of sectors residing on the first server,wherein the plurality of sectors collectively stores data desired by the one or more computers, andwherein the first server emulates, in response to the one or more requests, behavior of a disk drive on the one or more client computers;

    registering each of the client computers from which the first server received a download request during a predetermined invitation period;

    determining that a sector sequence file does not reside on the first server and then learning a sector sequence file;

    broadcasting or multicasting via the network from the first server to the one or more client computers requesting the download of the plurality of sectors according to a sequence specified in the learned sector sequence file and such that the actual source of the sectors remains transparent to the one or more client computerswherein the step of broadcasting or multicasting further comprises;

    designating, by the first server, in a predetermine order, a different client during each sector transmission from which a request for the next sector is received, until all the sectors are transmitted.

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