Bandwidth sharing in a distributed wireless client application using inverse multiplexing termination

摘要

A system and method for bandwidth sharing in a distributed wireless client application using inverse multiplexing termination. The system includes: a group of collocated client playback devices having wide area network (WAN) and local area network (LAN) connectivity, and a centralized inverse multiplexing (IMUX) server which optimizes shared bandwidth of both the WAN via inverse multiplexing and the LAN using either broadcast or multicast of all virtual multiplexing paths to all other client playback devices of the group of collocated client playback devices. Other embodiments are disclosed.

主权项

1. A server comprising:
a controller configured to:
establish a unicast connection with each of a plurality of client devices having a wide area network (WAN) and a local area network (LAN) connectivity;receive streaming media content from a content server;initiate an inverse multiplexed session with each of the plurality of client devices via their respective unicast connections; andstream the media content via the inverse multiplex session over a multi-transport path terminating at each of the client devices to enable each of the client devices to re-transmit the content of its unicast connection over the LAN such that each of the client devices receives the content of the unicast connections of all of the other client devices.