Method and apparatus for network based adaptive streaming

A system comprising:

• a memory;
• and
• a processor operatively coupled with the memory to:
• obtain, by unicast streaming, a digital video stream of an item of Over-the-Top (OTT) content having a bit rate from a set of bit rates for the digital video stream;
• transmit, by multicast streaming over a network to devices, the digital video stream having the bit rate;
• and
• switch the bit rate for the digital video stream to a different bit rate from the set of bit rates to provide adaptive control of the multicast stream based on a monitoring of bandwidth utilization of the network during the transmitting, wherein the switching of the bit rate obtains the digital video stream at the different bit rate from the unicast streaming,
• wherein unicast pulls associated with the unicast streaming of the digital video stream from a server of the network are switched to a higher bit rate when the monitored bandwidth utilization of the network is below a lower bandwidth utilization threshold and the unicast pulls are switched to a lower bit rate when the monitored bandwidth utilization of the network exceeds an upper bandwidth threshold.

A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

• obtaining, by unicast streaming, a digital video stream of an item of Over-the-Top (OTT) content having a bit rate from a set of bit rates for the digital video stream;
• transmitting, by multicast streaming over a network to devices, the digital video stream having the bit rate;
• and
• switching the bit rate for the digital video stream to a different bit rate from the set of bit rates to provide adaptive control of the multicast stream based on a monitoring of bandwidth utilization of the network during the transmitting, wherein the switching of the bit rate obtains the digital video stream at the different bit rate from the unicast streaming,
• wherein unicast pulls associated with the unicast streaming of the digital video stream from a server of the network are switched to a higher bit rate when the monitored bandwidth utilization of the network is below a lower bandwidth utilization threshold and the unicast pulls are switched to a lower bit rate when the monitored bandwidth utilization of the network exceeds an upper bandwidth threshold.