Network architecture for data transmission
First Claim
1. A method for providing streamed electronic content to a plurality of user terminals in a client network from at least one remote electronic content source, the method comprising:
- receiving at a client-side computer requests from two or more user terminals in the client network for a common desired streamed content from the at least one remote electronic content store;
said client-side computer forwarding at least one content request to the at least one remote electronic content store for the common desired streamed content;
receiving by the client-side computer from the at least one content source a streamed unicast transmission of the requested content in response to said at least one content request;
said client-side computer distributing the received streamed content corresponding to said streamed unicast transmission to each of the requesting plurality of user terminals in the client network; and
said client-side computer being operative in terminating the content transmission being received by the client-side computer from the at least one content source when the client-side computer is not distributing the content to any of the requesting user terminals.
6 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A content distribution network with client side multicasting properties that operates with a reduced bandwidth is provided. The requested content, such as multimedia content, is provided in a format suitable for transmission over existing unicast communication links and is then changed to a multicast format for local distribution. This allows an application provider to transmit a single unicast stream of content to a client-side media server in a local area network (LAN) and then distribute it to multiple interested users within the LAN using a multicasting transmission format. This significantly reduces bandwidth requirements by providing a single unicast transmission to a LAN rather than supply each user within the LAN with a dedicated content stream.
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Citations
25 Claims
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1. A method for providing streamed electronic content to a plurality of user terminals in a client network from at least one remote electronic content source, the method comprising:
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receiving at a client-side computer requests from two or more user terminals in the client network for a common desired streamed content from the at least one remote electronic content store; said client-side computer forwarding at least one content request to the at least one remote electronic content store for the common desired streamed content; receiving by the client-side computer from the at least one content source a streamed unicast transmission of the requested content in response to said at least one content request; said client-side computer distributing the received streamed content corresponding to said streamed unicast transmission to each of the requesting plurality of user terminals in the client network; and said client-side computer being operative in terminating the content transmission being received by the client-side computer from the at least one content source when the client-side computer is not distributing the content to any of the requesting user terminals. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A system for providing streamed electronic content to a plurality of user terminals in a client network from a remote electronic content source, the system comprising:
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a plurality of user terminals in a client network; a content source which provides a streamed unicast transmission of content in response to the requests of two or more user terminals in the client network; a client-side computer in the client network that is operative in forwarding to the content source at least one of the requests of the two or more user terminals, receiving the streamed unicast transmission of requested content, and distributing the received content to the requesting user terminals in the client network such that two or more of the requesting user terminals receive the requested content corresponding to the streamed unicast transmission, and terminating the content transmission being received by the client-side computer from the at least one content source when the client-side computer is not distributing the content to any of the requesting user terminals. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A method for providing streamed electronic content to a plurality of user terminals in a client network from a remote electronic content source, the method comprising:
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receiving at a client-side computer requests from two or more user terminals in the client network for a common desired streamed content from the electronic content source; said client-side computer forwarding at least one content request to the at least one remote electronic content store for the common desired streamed content; forming a multicast group comprising user terminals that have provided requests for the streamed content; receiving by the client-side computer from the at least one content source a streamed unicast transmission of the requested content in response to said at least one content request; said client-side computer distributing the received content corresponding to said streamed unicast transmission to each of the requesting user terminals of the client network in the multicast group; and said client-side computer terminating the content transmission being received by the client-side computer from the at least one content source when the client-side computer is not distributing the content to any of the requesting user terminals.
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18. A method for providing a minimum quality of service in a reduced bandwidth network that provides streamed electronic content to a plurality of user terminals in a client from a remote electronic content source, the method comprising:
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receiving at a client-side computer requests from two or more user terminals in a client network for a common desired streamed content from the at least one remote electronic content store; said client-side computer forwarding at least one content request to the at least one remote electronic content store for the common desired streamed content; receiving by the client-side computer from the at least one content source a streamed unicast transmission of the requested content in response to said at least one content request; said client-side computer distributing the received streamed content corresponding to said streamed unicast transmission to each of the requesting plurality of user terminals in the client network; said client-side computer terminating the content transmission being received by the client-side computer from the at least one content source when the client-side computer is not distributing the content to any of the requesting user terminals; and monitoring the client-side computer for potential quality of service problems. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21)
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22. A system for providing streamed electronic content to a plurality of user terminals in a client network from a remote electronic content source, the system comprising:
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a plurality of user terminals in a client network, each including a display device; a content source which provides a streamed transmission in a unicast format of content in response to the requests of two or more user terminals in the client network; a client-side computer in the client network that is operative in forwarding to the content source at least one of the requests of the two or more user terminals, receiving the streamed unicast format transmission of requested content, processing the streamed content into a multicast format, distributing the processed multicast format content to the requesting user terminals in the client network such that two or more of the requesting user terminals receive the requested content corresponding to the streamed unicast format transmission, and terminating the content transmission being received by the client-side computer from the at least one content source when the client-side computer is not distributing the content to any of the requesting user terminals; each of the plurality of terminals in the client network including software for processing received streamed multicast format content into unicast format for display on a respective display device. - View Dependent Claims (23)
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24. A system for providing electronic content to a plurality of user terminals in a client network from a remote electronic content source, the system comprising:
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a plurality of user terminals in a client network; a content source which provides a streamed unicast transmission of content in response to the requests of two or more user terminals in the client network; a client-side computer in the client network that is operative in forwarding to the content source at least one of the requests of the two or more user terminals, receiving the streamed unicast transmission of requested content, card distributing the received content to the requesting user terminals in the client network such that two or more of the requesting user terminals receive the requested content corresponding to the streamed unicast transmission, and terminating the content transmission being received by the client-side computer from the at least one content source when the client-side computer is not distributing the content to any of the requesting user terminals; each of the plurality of terminals in the client network including a local proxy which prepares the distributed streamed content for display at the respective user terminal.
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25. A method for providing streamed electronic content to a plurality of user terminals in a client network from a remote electronic content source, the system comprising:
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providing a streamed transmission in a unicast format of content from the remote content source in response to the requests of two or more user terminals in the client network, at least one of the requests being forwarded to the remote content source by a client-side computer in the client network; receiving the streamed unicast format transmission of requested content in the client-side computer in the client network; processing the streamed content into a multicast format in the client-side computer; distributing via the client-side computer the received and processed multicast format content to the requesting user terminals in the client network; processing received streamed multicast format content into unicast format in the respective user terminal for display at a respective terminal; and said client-side computer being tenninating the content transmission being received by the client-side computer from the remote content source when the client-side computer is not distributing the content to any of the requesting user terminals.
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Specification