Systems and methods of reducing media stream delay

1. A method comprising:

receiving a request for accelerated delivery of a specified media stream, the request including a requested burst size;

deciding to grant or deny the accelerated delivery request based on a group of factors including resource usage, current network congestion, or a combination thereof; and

responding to the accelerated delivery request with a response indicating the decision to grant or deny, wherein if the decision is to grant, the response comprises the size of a granted burst wherein the size of the granted burst is different than the requested burst size.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

responsive to a decision to grant, delivering the specified media stream at a delivery rate faster than a nominal delivery rate of the specified media stream.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the delivering comprises:

delivering the specified media stream as a unicast stream.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

responsive to a decision to grant, coordinating delivery of the specified media stream, the delivery rate being faster than a nominal delivery rate of the specified media stream.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the deciding comprises:

evaluating one or more of the factors to determine whether the evaluated factor supports granting the delivery request or denying the delivery request, wherein the decision is based on the evaluation.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the deciding comprises:

evaluating one or more of the factors to determine whether the evaluated factor supports granting the delivery request or denying the decision request; and

assigning a weight to each of the evaluations, wherein the decision is based on the weighted evaluations.

7. A method comprising:

receiving a request for accelerated delivery of a specified media stream, the request including a requested burst size;

deciding to grant or deny the accelerated delivery request based at least in part on the requested burst size; and

responding to the accelerated delivery request with a response indicating the decision to grant or deny and further indicating a granted burst size when the decision is to grant, wherein if the decision is to grant, the response comprises the size of a granted burst wherein the size of the granted burst is different than the requested burst size.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the deciding is further based on resource usage, current network congestion, or a combination thereof.

9. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:

determining the granted burst size for the accelerated delivery.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the specified media stream includes a plurality of video frames, the method further comprising:

selecting, from the plurality of video frames, the intra-coded frame to be the first video frame in the delivered stream, the selecting based on the granted burst size, current resource usage, current network congestion, or a combination thereof; and

generating the stream such that the selected intra-coded frame appears as the first video frame in the delivered stream.

11. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:

responsive to a decision to grant, delivering the specified media stream at a delivery rate faster than a nominal delivery rate of the specified media stream.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the delivering comprises:

delivering the specified media stream as a unicast stream.

13. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:

responsive to a decision to grant, coordinating delivery of the specified media stream, the delivery rate being faster than a nominal delivery rate of the specified media stream.

14. An apparatus comprising:

memory storing executable instructions thereon; and

a processor configured by the executable instructions to:

receive a request for accelerated delivery of a specified media stream, the request including a requested burst size;

decide to grant or deny the accelerated delivery request based at least in part on the requested burst size; and

respond to the accelerated delivery request with a response indicating the decision to grant or deny and further indicating a granted burst size when the decision is to grant, wherein if the decision is to grant, the response comprises the size of a granted burst wherein the size of the granted burst is different than the requested burst size.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the processor is further configured to decide based on resource usage, current network congestion, or a combination thereof.

16. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

determine the granted burst size for the accelerated delivery.

17. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the specified media stream includes a plurality of video frames, wherein the processor is further configured to:

select, from the plurality of video frames, the intra-coded frame to be the first video frame in the delivered stream, the selecting based on the granted burst size, current resource usage, current network congestion, or a combination thereof; and

generate the stream such that the selected intra-coded frame appears as the first video frame in the delivered stream.

18. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

responsive to a decision to grant, deliver the specified media stream at a delivery rate faster than a nominal delivery rate of the specified media stream.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 , wherein the processor is further configured to deliver the specified media stream as a unicast stream.

20. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

responsive to a decision to grant, coordinate delivery of the specified media stream, the delivery rate being faster than a nominal delivery rate of the specified media stream.