Fractional redundant distribution of media content

• Main Authors: ROSEMAN NEIL C, GOODWIN ROBERT L
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 24.02.2015
• Subjects: CALCULATING; COMPUTING; COUNTING; ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE; ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING; ELECTRICITY; PHYSICS; PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION; TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHICCOMMUNICATION

A method and system for a client device to download media content directly from a group of other client devices which play a role of edge servers placed by a content service provider. According to some embodiments, an end user can use his/her client device to stream or download media content from the source client devices selected based on the geographic locality, network topology, etc. The fractions of data corresponding to a portion of media content are stored on the source client devices such that only a subset of the fractions of data are needed to recreate the corresponding portion. That is, by using the first received of the minimum number of fractions to reconstruct each portion of media content, the system does not need to wait for the slowest fractions to arrive, which contributes in reducing latency.