SYSTEMS, METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR DEMOCRATIC ALLOCATION OF BANDWIDTH

摘要

Systems, methods and apparatus are provided for democratic allocation of bandwidth. A user (416) of an entertainment device (102) may select to access content from a large catalog of available content. A content source (104) initially begins providing the content to a user device (102) over a low-bandwidth connection, such as an internet protocol (IP) connection. The content source tabulates the number of users accessing the content over the low-bandwidth connection (904). If bandwidth becomes available over a high-bandwidth connection, then the content source selects the content for transmission over the high-bandwidth (908) connection based on the number of users (600) accessing the content. The client device may then begin downloading the content over the high-bandwidth connection rather than the low-bandwidth connection, resulting in a faster completion of the download for the user.