Progressive downloading

摘要

The invention provides a node in content distribution network and a method of progressively downloading content at a node in a content distribution network. The content is divided into a plurality of segments and each segment comprises a plurality of blocks. The method comprises connecting the node to one or more neighbour nodes. A segment is then selected such that the segments are downloaded substantially sequentially to the node and a block is selected from the selected segment based on a second selection function. The selected block is then downloaded from one of the neighbour nodes.