Abstract:
A client device presents streaming media and includes a stream manager for controlling streams, a request accelerator for making network requests for content, a source component coupled to the stream manager and the request accelerator for determining which requests to make, a network connection, and a media player. The request accelerator can accelerate a download rate using a plurality of TCP connections. A target download rate can vary among HTTP requests. The TCP receiver window size for a given TCP connection might be based on the target download rate for that TCP connection and/or a current estimated round-trip time for the current TCP connection multiplied by a multiplier rate, wherein the multiplier rate is within a range bounded by the target download rate for the current TCP connection and a rate that is higher than the target download rate by a predetermined amount.