System and method for receiving packet data multicast in sequential looping fashion

A computer readable medium storing program code for, when executed, causing a computer to perform a method for receiving content data transmitted from a server in a sequence of packets, the server repeatedly transmitting the packets in sequence, the method comprising:

• upon receipt of a first packet from the server, deriving from the packet a number of the packet in the sequence and a total number of packets in the sequence;
• generating and storing an index having an entry for each of the packets in the sequence based upon the total number of packets in the sequence;
• updating the index for each packet received subsequent to the first packet;
• detecting based on the index whether any subsequent packet is missing from the sequence of packets;
• and
• if a missing packet is detected, determining whether the first time required to retrieve the missing packet by waiting for the packet to be received in the repeating sequence is greater than a threshold time and, if the first time is greater than the threshold time, requesting the missing packet to be delivered from a server.

A computer implemented method for transmitting content data from a server to one or more clients, the method comprising:

• breaking the content data into a plurality of data packets arranged in a sequence;
• inserting into a header of each data packet a total number of packets in the sequence, a number of the particular packet in the sequence, and data representing a size of the data in the particular data packet;
• repeatedly transmitting the data packets in sequence;
• and
• upon request from a client for transmission of a given data packet, transmitting the given data packet in response to the request without waiting for the packet to appear in sequence.