Method and apparatus for distributing media over a communications network

摘要

A proxy node and method for use in an Internet Protocol television peer to peer network. A proxy node includes a receiver for receiving media data on behalf of an end user device. The proxy node further comprises a memory for storing the media data; and a transmitter for sending at least some of the received media data to a further node in the peer to peer network on behalf of the end user device. In this way, further nodes believe that the end user device is sending as much data as it is receiving.