Method and apparatus for sharing media files among network nodes with respect to available bandwidths

Abstract

Techniques for sharing data among a plurality of networked devices, also referred to network nodes, are discussed. To best use an available uploading bandwidth of a device sharing data with a receiving device, a portion of the data is uploaded within the available uploading bandwidth, and another portion of the data is uploaded from another device locally caching the same data. To satisfy the minimum transmission rate of the data to the receiving device, both portions of the data are concurrently uploaded from the two devices to the receiving device. In reference to a predetermined minimum uploading bandwidth and the available uploading bandwidth, the two portions of data are interleaved and must be reassembled to recover the data for consumption in the receiving device. A size of the first portion of the data is determined by a server in view of the available uploading bandwidth a designated supplying box has.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION[0001]This is a continuation of co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 11 / 278,416 which is continuation-in-part of co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 11 / 075,573, entitled “Continuous data feeding in a distributed environment” and filed Mar. 9, 2005, and by at least one of the co-inventors herein.BACKGROUND[0002]1. Technical Field[0003]The present invention is generally related to multimedia data delivery over the Internet. Particularly, the present invention is related to techniques for sharing media files among network nodes.[0004]2. Description of the Related Art[0005]It is common to share files among computing devices across a network. However, when data to be shared is of huge size and the network bandwidth between two devices sharing the data is limited, the utility or application of the data could suffer. For example, one device is supplying data pertaining to a movie to another device over a network with a limited bandwidth. If the data d...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0008]This section is for the purpose of summarizing some aspects of embodiments of the present invention and to briefly introduce some preferred embodiments. Simplifications or omissions in this section as well as the ti

Problems solved by technology

However, when data to be shared is of huge size and the network bandwidth between two devices sharing the data is limited, the utility or application of the data could suffer.

If the data does not arrive at a required transmission rate, the playback of the movie at the receiving device could demonstrate annoying jittery effects.

However, there are applications that require a minimum transmission rate, otherwise the applications could not perform or be conducted as expected.

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