Connection acceptance control

A method of bandwidth allocation for delivery of stored digital content from a server to one or more active clients in a session, comprising:

• repeatedly determining a control variable which represents a minimum flow rate of the delivery of stored digital content from the server to an active client by faster-than-real-time transmission, wherein the minimum flow rate is guaranteed not to increase during the session;
• determining time-varying constraints on the minimum flow rate based on scheduled changes in network capacity;
• determining a sum of all minimum flow rates for all client devices in the session and
• allocating bandwidth to all active clients based upon a cost function that maximized revenue for a service provider, wherein excess bandwidth is based on a difference between network capacity and the sum of all minimum flow rates for all client devices in a session, and further based on the time-varying constraints such that each active client is guaranteed bandwidth for successful delivery of the stored digital content from the server to the active client during the session.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having embodied thereon instructions executable by a computer processor to perform a method of bandwidth allocation for delivery of stored digital content from a server to one or more active clients in a session, the method comprising:

• repeatedly determining a control variable which represents a minimum flow rate of the delivery of stored digital content from the server to an active client by faster-than-real-time transmission, wherein the minimum flow rate is guaranteed not to increase during the session;
• determining time-varying constraints on the minimum flow rate based on scheduled changes in network capacity;
• determining a sum of all minimum flow rates for all client devices in the session;
• and
• allocating bandwidth to all active clients based upon a cost function that maximized revenue for a service provider, wherein excess bandwidth is based on a difference between network capacity and the sum of all minimum flow rates for all client devices in a session, and further based on the time-varying constraints such that each active client is guaranteed bandwidth for successful delivery of the stored digital content from the server to the active client during the session.