This invention treats of a two-level cache management method for
continuous media files of a proxy server. In the first level, the method
reserves collapsed buffers in the cache for every active client attended
by the proxy server. To save bandwidth and memory space collapsed buffers
can be concatenated and overlapped when content belongs to the same
continuous media file. The proxy manages collectively the collapsed
buffers of each client, which cooperate by making its content available
to the whole system, reducing traffic over the communication network and
on the media-on-demand server. In the second level, the method allows
proxy servers to cooperate between themselves, by concatenating collapsed
buffers when necessary, increasing the amount of available shared media
in the cache, saving bandwidth both on the media-on-demand server and on
the communication network backbone.