US 12,457,250 B2
Content delivery
Rory Turnbull, London (GB); Stephen Appleby, London (GB); and Timothy Stevens, London (GB)
Assigned to BRITISH TELECOMMUNICATIONS PUBLIC LIMITED COMPANY, London (GB)
Appl. No. 18/008,615
Filed by BRITISH TELECOMMUNICATIONS PUBLIC LIMITED COMPANY, London (GB)
PCT Filed Jun. 9, 2021, PCT No. PCT/EP2021/065488
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Dec. 6, 2022,
PCT Pub. No. WO2021/250105, PCT Pub. Date Dec. 16, 2021.
Claims priority of application No. 2008945 (GB), filed on Jun. 12, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2023/0254349 A1, Aug. 10, 2023
Int. Cl. H04L 65/1045 (2022.01); H04L 65/611 (2022.01); H04L 65/612 (2022.01)
CPC H04L 65/1045 (2022.05) [H04L 65/611 (2022.05); H04L 65/612 (2022.05)] 14 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of managing content delivery over a network to a client device, said content comprising a sequence of segments and wherein each of the segments is encoded at a plurality of bit rates, said method comprising:
i) receiving at a first network element one or more segments encoded at a first bit rate over multicast sent from a content server, and sending the plurality of segments encoded at the first bit rate from the first network element to the client device over unicast;
ii) sending a request for one or more subsequent segments encoded at the first bit rate from the first network element to the content server over unicast;
iii) receiving at the first network element the requested one or more subsequent segments over unicast, and forwarding the received subsequent segments to the client device over unicast;
iv) receiving at the first network element from the client device a request for one or more further subsequent segments encoded at a second bit rate, wherein the second bit rate is higher than the first bit rate;
v) sending the received request for one or more further subsequent segments encoded at the second bit rate from the first network element to the content server over unicast; and
vi) receiving at the first network element the requested one or more further subsequent segments over multicast, and sending the received further segments to the client device over unicast.