GUIDED RANDOM SEEK SUPPORT FOR MEDIA STREAMING

Seek support facilitates convenient access to portions of a media file a user wishes to access. Seek support is provided by a usage model based on prior users' access of a media file or expected user access patterns. The usage model reflects expected next segments a user will seek when accessing the media file. A prefetching model derived from the usage model reduces seeking delay by prefetching one or more expected next segments identified from the usage model that will result in minimal seeking distance. Correspondingly, a method of prefetching segments also facilitates access to the media file. A quantity of segments of a media file to be prefetched and a current region of a media file being access are identified. At least one next segment identified by the prefetching model as an expected next seeking destination from the current region is identified, and the next segment is prefetched.