Multimedia Channel Switching

Abstract

The invention reduces the user-perceived time of switching multimedia channels in a unicast communications system. This shortening of the switch procedure is obtained by reducing the buffering of the multimedia data in the data buffer of a user terminal. A reduced media buffering results in that multimedia data of the new channel will be rendered in the user terminal in a much shorter period of time. A multimedia provider communicating the multimedia data to the terminal determines a reduced transmission rate that will be temporarily employed for obtaining the buffering reduction. This reduced rate is lower than the normally employed transmission rate and lower than the rendering rate of the media player of the terminal. Consequently, the terminal buffer will be emptying in a faster rate than it is replenished and a buffer level reduction is obtained.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.