Abstract: Content (e.g., multimedia streams, audio-video streams, video files, text, etc.) may be delivered to receiver devices over a broadcast channel and/or via a broadcast network via components (e.g., servers, receiver device, software applications, modules, processes, etc.) configured to communicate the content in a manner that reduces the amount of information communicated over the broadcast network, reduces the amount network bandwidth consumed by the communication, meets precise timing requirements for the individual objects that are communicated, and enables each receiver device to receive, decode, and render the content without consuming an excess amount of that receiver device's battery or processing resources.

Abstract: Systems and methods for encoding data for transmission over a communications channel using an improved LT staircase FEC code are provided. Embodiments may include mapping source symbols to repair symbols, wherein a number of edges of the mapping associated with a source symbol is determined randomly according to a first distribution. The repair symbols may be ordered, and at least a first repair symbol may be encoded based on the source symbols that map to the first repair symbol and/or another repair symbol that immediately precedes the first repair symbol in the ordering of the repair symbols.

Abstract: A client device includes one or more processors configured to receive, from a server device, forward-error corrected data via a plurality of parallel network paths, determine losses of the data over each of the network paths, and send data representing the losses of the data over each of the network paths to the server device. Additionally or alternatively, a client device includes one or more processors configured to receive a first set of encoding units for a first block, wherein the first set of encoding units includes fewer than a minimum number of encoding units needed to recover the first block, after receiving the first set of encoding units, receive a second set of encoding units for a second block, and after receiving the second set of encoding units, receive a third set of encoding units including one or more encoding units for the first block.

Abstract: A client device presents streaming media and includes a stream manager for controlling streams, a request accelerator for making network requests for content, a source component coupled to the stream manager and the request accelerator for determining which requests to make, a network connection, and a media player. A process for rate estimation is provided that will react quickly to reception rate changes. The rate estimator can use an adaptive windowed average and take into account the video buffer level and the change in video buffer level in a way so to guarantee that the rate adjusts fast enough if there is a need, while keeping the windowing width large (and thus the measurement variance) large. A guarantee might be that when a rate drop or rise happens, the estimator adjusts its estimate within a time proportional to a buffer drain rate or buffer fill level.

Abstract: Data objects can be delivered over a network using a file delivery system and universal object delivery and template-based file delivery. This might be done by forming source data into a sequence of data objects represented by symbols in packets, sending those to receivers on request, wherein a transmitter obtains a template file delivery table with delivery metadata for the data objects, and constructing a first transmission object identifier for a data object based on a transmission object identifier construction rule described in the template file delivery table. A receiver might receive packets, extract a second transmission object identifier, associate encoded symbols comprising the received data packet with the data object if the first transmission object identifier and the second transmission object identifier identify the same data object, and recover, at least approximately, the source data for the data object based on the encoded symbols associated with the data object.

Abstract: Data objects are delivered over a packet-switched network and receivers receive encoded symbols, such as repair symbols, broadcast or multicast, with sufficient information to form requests for additional symbols as needed based on what source symbols or sub-symbols are needed or missing. The requests can be made in a unicast or request fashion. Requesting and broadcasting might be done by different entities. A broadcast server can generate and store repair symbols while a source server can store content in source form. A request can be a unicast HTTP byte-range request, such as a URL, starting position and length. Requests might be aligned with starting positions of files. A receiver can calculate starting and ending byte positions of symbols or sub-symbols in a file and get indications that conventional HTTP servers are usable for file repair. Repair servers can request broadcast of repair data when byte-range requests from multiple receivers overlap.

Abstract: The switch signaling methods providing improved switching between representations for adaptive HTTP streaming described herein enable user experience and bandwidth efficiency improvements for adaptive HTTP streaming solutions, even when segment data is encrypted. The signaling methods include associating segment maps with segments of a representation, wherein a segment map comprises both temporal entry and temporal exit points within associated segments together with byte offset information and potentially other segment information, wherein segment maps may be generated with predictable time span patterns that are independent of the time spans of the associated segments. These embodiments can be used to enhance existing deployments in such a way that there is no need to change existing content encoding and formatting processes, and such that existing clients that receive and play out content are unaffected.