Content delivery

A method for delivering content to a client device is described. In particular, the method can be applied to hybrid unicast/multicast delivery networks, where content is provided by a content server to a root proxy, and that root proxy delivers the content to edge proxies via multicast. However, requests for that content in the form of HTTP GET requests from a client device are received by an edge proxy, which then sends an HTTP HEAD request for the header information associated with that content directly to the content server. The content server responds via unicast with an appropriate response to the HTTP HEAD request, which is then received by the edge proxy. The edge proxy takes the response along with the payload of the content segment received via multicast to generate a client-specific content segment for delivery to the client device via unicast. (Automatic translation with Google Translate, no legal value)