COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: An Experimental Study of Broadcasting Protocols for Video-on-Demand

University Of California-Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz CA

Investigators

Abstract

Proposal Number CCR-9988363 An Experimental Study of Broadcasting Protocols for Video-on-Demand PI: D.E. Long One of the most promising approaches to making video-on-demand services more competitive is to continuously broadcast the most frequently requested videos. This research addresses three important limitations common to most existing broadcasting protocols for video-on-demand. A first research direction is the development of broadcasting protocols that can handle compressed videos having variable bandwidth requirements. The performance of these new protocols will be evaluated using a representative set of videos in the MPEG-2 format used by DVD. A second research direction is the efficient implementation of interactive functions analogous to those existing on a VCR. These functions will allow customers to pause, move backward and forward as if they were watching a videocassette. A third research direction is the design of broadcasting protocols that can adjust their broadcasting schedules to all observed changes in the request arrival rate. As a result, these dynamic broadcasting protocols will perform equally well at peak hours and at hours of lower demand. All these broadcasting protocols will be demonstrated on a very simple testbed consisting of a single workstation broadcasting a few specific videos. This is a collaborative research project between the University of California, Santa Cruz and the University of Houston.