Data scheduling

Abstract

A method of scheduling a series of data files, preferably digital movie files provided in encrypted form for transmission to hotels, for transmission by a predetermined transmission channel in a predetermined time period according to one aspect of the invention includes: determining the bandwidth of the transmission channel; determining the size of each data file in the series; determining the schedule of a corresponding series of data files transmitted over the same transmission channel in a previous predetermined period of time; determining data files from the corresponding series that are not available for transmission in this predetermined period of time; determining data files that have become available for transmission since the previous predetermined period of time; determining other parameters dependent on the success or failure of transmission or reception of each data file in the series: assigning a ranking value to each data file according to the determined parameters; and scheduling the transmission of each data file in the series according to its ranking value.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.