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Abstract

A multicasting system for reception of multimedia information comprising: a content switch coupled to a multimedia content source and at least one multimedia smart terminal. The multimedia content source includes a plurality of multimedia contents, wherein each multimedia content is supported by a primary multimedia stream transmitted over a primary dedicated channel having a primary bandwidth. At least one multimedia smart terminal is configured to receive from the content switch over a network each multimedia content as a secondary multimedia stream transmitted over a secondary channel having a secondary bandwidth. The content switch includes a bandwidth scaler configured to scale each primary multimedia stream to a plurality of secondary multimedia sub-streams that are substantially synchronized. The multimedia smart terminal includes a smart terminal sub-stream switch configured to switch among the plurality of secondary multimedia sub-streams in order to select a substantially optimum secondary multimedia sub-stream. The substantially optimum secondary multimedia sub-stream includes a substantially optimum relationship between an error rate level determined at the time of reception of a multimedia content and the quality of reception of a multimedia content.

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