Microsoft Smooth Streaming is an IIS Media Service

Microsoft Smooth Streaming is an IIS Media Services extension that enables adaptive streaming of media to clients over HTTP.[24] The format specification is based on the ISO base media file format and standardized by Microsoft as the Protected Interoperable File Format.[25] Microsoft is actively involved with 3GPP, MPEG and DECE organizations' efforts to standardize adaptive bit-rate HTTP streaming. Microsoft provides Smooth Streaming Client software development kits for Silverlight and Windows Phone 7, as well as a Smooth Streaming Porting Kit that can be used for other client operating systems, such as Apple iOS, Android, and Linux.[26] IIS Media Services 4.0, released in November 2010, introduced a feature which enables Live Smooth Streaming H.264/AAC videos to be dynamically repackaged into the Apple HTTP Adaptive Streaming format and delivered to iOS devices without the need for re-encoding. Microsoft has successfully demonstrated delivery of both live and on-demand 1080p HD video with Smooth Streaming to Silverlight clients. In 2010 Microsoft also partnered with NVIDIA to demonstrate live streaming of 1080p stereoscopic 3D video to PCs equipped with NVIDIA 3D Vision technology.[27]


Adaptive bitrate streaming

It works by detecting a user's bandwidth and CPU capacity in real time and adjusting the quality of a video stream accordingly. It requires the use of an encoder which can encode a single source video at multiple bit rates. The player client[2] switches between streaming the different encodings depending on available resources.[3] "The result: very little buffering, fast start time and a good experience for both high-end and low-end connections."[4]
.........sounds like the makings for an algorithm, doesn't it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_bitrate_streaming