Periodic Broadcasting with VBR-Encoded Video

We consider designing near video on demand (VoD) systems that minimize start-up latency while maintaining high image quality. Recently several research teams have developed periodic broadcasting techniques for near VoD that use non-uniform segmentation. These techniques give significant reductions in start-up latency as compared with more conventional uniform segmentation. All of these schemes assume, however, that the videos are CBR-encoded. Because a CBR-encoded video has a larger average rate than an open-loop VBR encoding of the same video with the same image quality, there is potential to obtain further performance improvements by using VBR video. In this paper we develop a series of multiplexing schemes for the periodic broadcasting of VBR-encoded video. Our multiplexing schemes are based on smoothing, server buffering and client prefetching. There are two key but conflicting performance measures when using VBR video: latency and packet loss. By introducing small additional dela...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1999
• Where: INFOCOM
• Authors: Despina Saparilla, Keith W. Ross, Martin Reisslein
• Keywords: Communications, INFOCOM 1999, Multiplexing Schemes, Start-up Latency, VBR Video