System and method for transparent electronic data transfer using error correction to facilitate bandwidth-efficient data recovery

A method for error correction and recovery in a computer network having a server and a client, comprising:

• transmitting a file in the form of N number of data packets from the server to the client in response to a request by the client;
• determining that the client did not receive k number of the data packets and did received (N−k) number of the data packets;
• obtaining (k+a safety value) number of error correction packets from the server;
• and
• recovering the k number data packets not received from the (k+safety value) number of error correction packets obtained and the (N−k) number of data packets received.

A method for electronically transferring data between a client and a server over a fixed bandwidth connection having a plurality of channels, comprising:

• providing a policy manager residing on the client to control to which channels the client subscribes;
• subscribing to at least one of the plurality of channels to receive discrete data;
• determining that not all of the discrete data was received and that there is missing discrete data;
• subscribing to at least one of the plurality of channels to receive discrete error correction data, each one of the discrete error correction data containing a unique weighted combination of the discrete data;
• and
• recovering the missing discrete data from the discrete error correction data received.

A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for transferring a data file having discrete data packets to a client computing device through a connection having a bandwidth, comprising:

• receiving a multicast of discrete data packets in response to a request from the client computing device;
• determining that a number of discrete data packets were not received and defining these discrete data packets not received as missing discrete data packets;
• obtaining a multicast of discrete error correction packets, a number of discrete error correction packets obtained being equal to the number of missing discrete data packets plus a safety value;
• and
• recovering each of the missing discrete data packets from the discrete error correction packets obtained;
• whereby each of the discrete error correction packets contain a weighted combination of each of the discrete data packets.

A method for transferring a data file to a client computing device using a plurality of channels contained within a fixed bandwidth network connection, comprising:

• subscribing to at least a portion of the plurality of channels to receive discrete data packets of the data file;
• determining a congestion status within the fixed bandwidth network connection;
• unsubscribing from at least one of the plurality of channels if the congestion status detects congestion;
• subscribing to additional ones of the plurality of channels if the congestion status detects little or no congestion;
• and
• recovering any discrete data packets of the data file lost during data transfer using discrete error correction data packets.

An electronic data transfer system, comprising:

• a transmission unit for transmitting over a connection having a fixed bandwidth a data signal containing discrete data and an error correction signal containing discrete error correction data;
• a reception unit capable of receiving the data signal and error correction signal;
• and
• an error correction module located on the transmission unit for generating the discrete error correction data, each of the discrete error correction data being a weighted combination of the discrete data.

A data transfer system for transferring a data file over a computer network through a fixed bandwidth network connection, comprising:

• a data socket on a server computing device for multicasting discrete data packets of the data file;
• discrete error correction data packets containing a weighted combination of the discrete data packets;
• an error correction socket on the server computing device for multicasting the discrete error correction data packets;
• and
• a transparent download module on a client computing device in communication with the server computing device over the fixed bandwidth network connection, the transparent download module capable of downloading the discrete data packets and the discrete error correction data packets.