| 摘要 |
<p>A connection between a communications terminal (1) and a communications network is arranged such that on detection of imminent (341,352) degradation or loss of such connection, the utilisation of the connection is maximised in advance of such degradation. The network temporarily reallocates the maximum bandwidth that the terminal is capable of using to that terminal (1), which may result in a small temporary degradation of the bandwidth available to other terminals (33), and the terminal (1) downloads the data most likely to be required next to a cache (352) (in the case of specific web pages, identified by recent accession, bookmarks, or hyperlinks from the page currently being viewed), or a buffer (if the data is being streamed) using this extra bandwidth made available. Streamed data may be accelerated by omitting error correction data, colour difference data or other elements in order to maximise the duration of the data that can be placed in the buffer in the time available.
Warning of the impending impairment (30) may be given by degrading the perceived quality of the output in advance of the actual impairment, thereby giving the user the opportunity to take any action possible to reverse or delay the actual impairment.</p> |
