Cyclic multicasting or asynchronous broadcasting of computer files

摘要

A client/server network system is disclosed for cyclic multicasting of an image file from a central data provider (server) to one or more remote client machines (workstations) over a computer network with minimum network transmission while allowing any number of client machines (workstations) to download the image file at any moment in time without the need to synchronize with the central server's transmission. The network system includes a computer network; a plurality of remote client machines on the computer network; and a central server for providing a cyclic multicasting of an image file to one or more client machines over the computer network concurrently through the use of different transmission cycles of a single cyclic multicast session. An image file is asynchronously transferred from the central server to one or more remote client machines concurrently over a computer network through the use of different transmission cycles during a single cyclic multicast session so as to keep the network transmission and network bandwidth to a minimum.