Methods and arrangements for system providing media via multicast distribution

摘要

The present invention relates to a server and a method for achieving a fast channel change in e.g. an IPTV system. This is achieved by selecting a source for retrieving the requested channel based on the current load of the FCC server. The source may be the streaming server providing the regular multicast stream or a buffer providing a buffered version of the requested channel. According to one embodiment requests for fast channel change (relating to the same channel) are grouped and served and served as a bundle over multicast. By doing that one can alleviate the load on the FCC server and the network since multiple clients can share the same stream.