Proxy Apparatus and Method for Streaming Media Information and for Increasing the Quality of Stored Media Information

摘要

A proxy apparatus and method for streaming media information via at least one network and for building-up a good quality version of the media information are provided. When a user device communicates with the proxy apparatus using a particular bandwidth and requests that media information be provided, the proxy apparatus first determines if a version of the media information encoded for the user device's connection bandwidth has been stored in the proxy apparatus. If a version of the media information encoded for the user device's bandwidth is not available from the proxy apparatus, the proxy apparatus sends a request to a media server for the media information. If the version of the media information has missing packets, the proxy device sends retransmission requests to the media server to obtain the missing packets, thereby building-up a good quality version of the media information.