Constant Delay Queuing for Jitter-Sensitive IPTV Distribution on Home Network

This paper presents a renovative priority queuing algorithm for jitter-sensitive MPEG-2 Transport Stream distribution on home network. Upon the dissemination of broadband access networks, there are many technical studies of IP-based video distribution (IPTV). In addition, it is becoming common for individual residences to use Ethernet home networks to interconnect PCs and home appliances. Under these circumstances, the home network will be a common traffic channel for them within residences. On the home network, it is difficult to comply with MPEG-2 Systems requirements in which the distribution delay jitter of Program Clock Reference in its stream should be suppressed to less than plusmn500 ns to synchronize system clocks between a transmitter and receivers. In this paper, we propose a Constant Delay Queuing (CDQ) scheduler to suppress the forwarding delay jitter, which is suitable for consumer Ethernet hubs to distribute the IPTV flow on home networks. By using an experimental hub which implements the CDQ scheduler, we demonstrate that the CDQ scheduler suppresses the jitter to less than plusmn500 ns. Furthermore, we discuss applications of CDQ to IPTV distribution on home networks and to improving synchronization stability of Network Time Protocol.