TY - GEN
T1 - Optimal multicast smoothing of streaming video over an internetwork
AU - Sen, Subhabrata
AU - Towsley, Don
AU - Zhang, Zhi Li
AU - Dey, Jayanta K.
PY - 1999
Y1 - 1999
N2 - A number of applications such as internet video broadcasts, corporate telecasts, distance learning etc. require transmission of streaming video to multiple simultaneous users across an internetwork. The high bandwidth requirements coupled with the multi-timescale burstiness of compressed video make it a challenging problem to provision network resources for transmitting streaming multimedia. For such applications to become affordable and ubiquitous, it is necessary to develop scalable techniques which can efficiently deliver streaming video to multiple heterogeneous clients across a heterogeneous internetwork. In this paper, we propose using multicasting of smoothed video and differential caching of the video at intermediate nodes in the distribution tree, as techniques for reducing the network bandwidth requirements of such dissemination. We formulate the multicast smoothing problem, and develop an algorithm for computing the set of optimally smoothed transmission schedules for the tree (such that the transmission schedule along each link in the tree has the lowest peak rate and rate variability for any feasible transmission schedule for that link) given a buffer allocation to the different nodes in the tree. We also develop an algorithm to compute the minimum total buffer allocation to the entire tree and the corresponding allocation to each node, such that feasible transmission is possible to all the clients, when the tree has heterogeneous rate constraints. MPEG-2 trace-driven performance evaluations indicate that there are substantial benefits from multicast smoothing and differential caching. For example, our optimal multicast smoothing can reduce the total transmission bandwidth requirements in the distribution tree by more than a factor of 3 as compared to multicasting the unsmoothed stream.
AB - A number of applications such as internet video broadcasts, corporate telecasts, distance learning etc. require transmission of streaming video to multiple simultaneous users across an internetwork. The high bandwidth requirements coupled with the multi-timescale burstiness of compressed video make it a challenging problem to provision network resources for transmitting streaming multimedia. For such applications to become affordable and ubiquitous, it is necessary to develop scalable techniques which can efficiently deliver streaming video to multiple heterogeneous clients across a heterogeneous internetwork. In this paper, we propose using multicasting of smoothed video and differential caching of the video at intermediate nodes in the distribution tree, as techniques for reducing the network bandwidth requirements of such dissemination. We formulate the multicast smoothing problem, and develop an algorithm for computing the set of optimally smoothed transmission schedules for the tree (such that the transmission schedule along each link in the tree has the lowest peak rate and rate variability for any feasible transmission schedule for that link) given a buffer allocation to the different nodes in the tree. We also develop an algorithm to compute the minimum total buffer allocation to the entire tree and the corresponding allocation to each node, such that feasible transmission is possible to all the clients, when the tree has heterogeneous rate constraints. MPEG-2 trace-driven performance evaluations indicate that there are substantial benefits from multicast smoothing and differential caching. For example, our optimal multicast smoothing can reduce the total transmission bandwidth requirements in the distribution tree by more than a factor of 3 as compared to multicasting the unsmoothed stream.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0032623708&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1109/INFCOM.1999.751378
DO - 10.1109/INFCOM.1999.751378
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:0032623708
SN - 0780354176
SN - 9780780354173
T3 - Proceedings - IEEE INFOCOM
SP - 455
EP - 463
BT - Proceedings - IEEE INFOCOM'99
T2 - 18th Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies: The Future is Now, IEEE INFOCOM'99
Y2 - 21 March 1991 through 25 March 1991
ER -