The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 21, 2000
Filed:
May. 30, 1997
Navin Chaddha, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
David del Val, Mountain View, CA (US);
Srinivas Prasad Vellanki, Milpitas, CA (US);
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus for delivering real-time multimedia information to clients via a distributed network is provided. The method and apparatus includes a LiveStation for encoding the real-time multimedia information into a number of different bandwidth points, and associated indexes, each bandwidth point for transmission over data channels of a particular bandwidth. The bandwidth points and indexes are provided to a recaster server to push the bandwidth points and indexes in parallel to secondary servers. The secondary servers then provide clients with compressed multimedia information according to the type of data channel used for connection. Parallel transmission of multiple bandwidth points and indexes allows the secondary servers to dynamically switch bandwidth points if data channels to clients change during transmission. Protocol between the LiveStation and a Recaster server, and between Recaster servers and secondary servers, is provided to allow configuration and transmission of real-time multimedia information to be controlled over a computer network from a single point.