System and method for network aware adaptive streaming for nomadic endpoints

摘要

In a system for streaming data over a network, the type and rate of streaming are automatically varied based on available network bandwidth. Video media is transcoded into different bit rate encodings that are divided into segment files. Segments are sent from a network-aware adaptive streaming (NAAS) server and reassembled and presented to a media player at a client device. The system may download additional segment files ahead of time from multiple NAAS servers to increase throughput. A playback status (“bookmark”) may be maintained to keep track of what the user has viewed and to allow the user to continue playing from where the user left off. The user may continue watching from the bookmark point on the same device or on a different device.