| 摘要 |
<p>A method and system are described herein for implementing virtual receivers (e.g., virtual user devices) to optimize data flow within a chaincast communication system. In particular, a plurality of virtual user devices are coupled to the Internet via high bandwidth connections. The virtual user devices can be implemented at an Independent Service Provider (ISP) the ISP providing the high bandwidth connection , can be implemented to share a communication with the chaincast manager, and can be implemented to share a communication connection with one or more of the plurality of broadcast servers. More importantly, the virtual user devices can be remotely controlled by the chaincast manager to connect to a particular broadcast server and to retransmit information from the broadcast server to one or more user devices, reducing the number of chain links (e.g., user device-to-user device) in a chaincast chain. Moreover, a server with chaincast capability is accessed by multiple user devices, each seeking to retrieve identical information from the server. The server activates chaincast capability within each of the user devices. Thus, a chaincast manager provides each of the user devices with a connection to retrieve the information from the server, where the connection can be a chaincast connection with another user device or a direct connection to the server. If any one of the user devices loses its connection prior to retrieving all of the information, the user device communicates with the chaincast manager to request another connection to complete retrieval of the information.</p> |
