US Patent 8706900 Dynamic storage resources

A storage server in a distributed content storage and access system provides a mechanism for dynamically establishing storage resources, such as buffers, with specified semantic models. For example, the semantic models support distributed control of single buffering and double buffering during a content transfer that makes use of the buffer for intermediate storage. In some examples, a method includes examining characteristics associated with a desired transfer of data, such as a unit of content, and then selecting characteristics of a first storage resource based on results of the examining. The desired transfer of the data is then affected to use the first storage resource element.