PARALLEL STREAMING

摘要

Embodiments of the present invention set forth techniques for a content player to stream a media file using multiple network connections. To stream the media file, the content player downloads metadata associated with a requested media file, establishes a network connection with multiple content servers (or multiple network connections with a single content server or both) and begins requesting portions of the media file. In response, the requested portions are transmitted to the content player. The content player may employ a predictive multi-connection scheduling approach to determine which network connection to use in downloading a given chunk.

主权项

1. A method, comprising:
establishing a plurality of network connections with one or more content servers for downloading a digital content file; receiving metadata describing a plurality of portions of the digital content file; selecting a first portion of the digital content file to be downloaded; downloading the first portion of the digital content file from at least one of the one or more content servers via an idle network connection; and storing the downloaded first portion of the digital content file in a content buffer for play back.