Method and apparatus for distributing media over a communications network

摘要

A method and apparatus for distributing media over a P2P IPTV network is described. The media is encoded into fragments comprising a plurality of key frames separated by subsidiary frames. The fragments are stored in a buffer in a first node in the network. The method includes sending a new channel subscription request from a second node in the network to the first node. One or more key fragments containing a key frame are selected from the fragments stored in the buffer at the first node, and sent to the second node. The second node decodes the fragment(s) to recover the key frame and display a corresponding picture. This reduces delay when channels are changed by the user.