Towards scalable VoD distribution on the Internet

Recent advances in the construction of broadcast schedules allow the bandwidth-efficient distribution of Variable Bit Rate (VBR) encoded video. Furthermore, most users are no longer severely limited by their local storage requirements, but are still limited in terms of available bandwidth. We examine an architecture that allows scalable video-on-demand (VoD) delivery, given bandwidth restrictions along the path from the distribution (video server) point to the user access point. We assume the use of a reservation scheme, such as RSVP, and we describe how a protocol based on a VoD broadcast algorithms can be deployed over a reservation- and multicast-capable Internet.