US 12,003,560 B2
Content delivery—setting the unicast rate
Rory Turnbull, London (GB); Timothy Stevens, London (GB); and Stephen Appleby, London (GB)
Assigned to BRITISH TELECOMMUNICATIONS public limited company, London (GB)
Appl. No. 17/764,821
Filed by BRITISH TELECOMMUNICATIONS PUBLIC LIMITED COMPANY, London (GB)
PCT Filed Aug. 19, 2020, PCT No. PCT/EP2020/073238
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Mar. 29, 2022,
PCT Pub. No. WO2021/063594, PCT Pub. Date Apr. 8, 2021.
Claims priority of application No. 19200625 (EP), filed on Sep. 30, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2022/0345508 A1, Oct. 27, 2022
Int. Cl. H04L 65/612 (2022.01); H04L 1/00 (2006.01); H04L 65/611 (2022.01)
CPC H04L 65/612 (2022.05) [H04L 1/0002 (2013.01); H04L 65/611 (2022.05)] 12 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of managing content delivery at a network element to a client device, wherein the content comprises a plurality of segments, said method comprising:
i) receiving one or more segments over multicast at a first network element, and caching the one or more segments at the first network element;
ii) determining a network bit rate at which the one or more segments is received;
iii) receiving unicast requests for segments from a client device at the first network element; and
iv) transmitting the requested segments from the first network element to the client device over unicast at a network transmission rate no greater than the determined network bit rate.