Dynamic bandwidth thresholds

A method implemented by a host comprising:

• discovering a client connected to the host over a network connection;
• performing a bandwidth test on the network connection;
• determining a bit rate from a list of bandwidth thresholds and associated bit rate values to enable streaming media between the host and the client over the network connection based at least on the bandwidth test, the list being associated with a geographic region, wherein the bandwidth thresholds in the list are determined based at least in part on data aggregated from multiple clients having a common internet protocol (IP) geolocation within the geographic region, wherein the list of bandwidth thresholds and associated bit rate values is updated based at least in part on the geographic region associated with the common IP geolocation;
• serving a media stream from the host to the client at a first rate according to the bit rate determined from the list of bandwidth thresholds and associated bit rate values;
• measuring a bandwidth between the host and the client while streaming the media from the host to the client at the first rate;
• and
• revising the rate of the media stream to a second rate based at least on the bandwidth measured between the host and the client and an IP geolocation of the client in accordance with the list of bandwidth thresholds and associated bit rate values, the IP geolocation including at least one of an internet service provider (ISP) of the client or an IP address of the client, wherein the IP geolocation correlates to the geographic region of the list.

A host system comprising:

• one or more processors;
• one or more computer readable media having computer-executable modules encoded thereon for programming the processor, the computer executable modules comprising:
• an aggregating module to receive and aggregate information from one or more clients, the information including internet protocol (IP) geolocation information including at least one of an internet service provider (ISP) of the client or an IP address of the client;
• a module to serve, to one of the one or more clients, a list of bandwidth thresholds and associated bit rate values to enable bit rate selection for streaming media between the host and the client, the list being associated with a geographic region, wherein the bandwidth thresholds and the associated bit rate values correlate to the IP geolocation information and are determined based at least in part on the geographic region associated with the one or more clients;
• a thresholding module to update the list based at least in part on the information aggregated by the aggregating module and to send an updated threshold relationship to the one or more clients, the aggregated information correlating to the geographic region of the list;
• and
• a presentation module to revise a rate of streaming media to the one or more clients according to the information received from the one or more clients and the updated list including the threshold relationship.