A method for bandwidth allocation for delivery of multimedia data from at least one server to one or more clients over a network. The method includes the steps of: determining a maximum flow rate and a minimum flow rate for each client; determining a flow rate range for each client as given by the difference between the maximum flow rate and the minimum flow rate; sorting the one or more clients according to the flow rate range; initializing a current flow rate for each client as the minimum flow rate and summing the flow rate into total server flow rate; establishing remaining server bandwidth; and allocating the remaining server bandwidth to clients, based upon the sorted client's flow rate ranges.