TCP Segment Buffering for Timely Multimedia Delivery

The patent applies preliminary action by pre-allocating placeholder entries in the segment buffer for expected TCP segments before they arrive. When segments are received out of order or late, the system can immediately place them in the pre-prepared buffer positions without waiting for sequential arrival, thus maintaining reliability while reducing delivery delays for multimedia content.

The patent applies partial action by implementing selective retransmission handling. Instead of waiting for all TCP segments to arrive in perfect sequence, the system delivers available segments to the application buffer when they reach a certain completeness threshold. This partial delivery approach maintains sufficient data accuracy for multimedia playback while avoiding excessive waiting time for complete retransmission sequences.

The patent introduces an intermediary layer between TCP and the application buffer. This intermediary segment buffer receives reliable TCP segments, performs out-of-order reassembly using pre-allocated placeholders, and then delivers data to the application. This intermediary mechanism provides UDP-like speed by not waiting for retransmissions while maintaining TCP-like reliability through buffered reassembly of all segments.