A consumer sends to a producer Interests to request data packets of a data stream that are generated at a production rate. Each data packet includes a name of the data stream, a segment of data, and a current segment number that identifies the data packet in the data stream and that increments as the data packets are generated. The Interests include the name and segment numbers of segments requested by the Interests. The consumer synchronizes the segment numbers with the current segment numbers and a rate for sending the Interests to the production rate. The consumer sends to the producer the Interests at the rate and with the segment numbers as synchronized, in order to minimize a delay time between when the data packets are generated and when the data packets are received at the consumer. The consumer receives from the producer data packets satisfying the Interests.