An interruption time reduction scheme with prefetch for hybrid video broadcasting environments

Most of the recent set-top boxes for digital video broadcasting can connect to the Internet. They can receive data from broadcast systems and from communication systems. Since such hybrid video broadcasting environments are suitable for large-scale streaming delivery, several schemes to reduce interruption time which occurs while playing video in hybrid broadcasting environments have been proposed. However, these schemes do not create sophisticated broadcast schedules. By dividing video data into several segments and broadcasting them according to an effective broadcast schedule, we can further reduce interruption time. In this paper, we propose an interruption time reduction scheme for hybrid video broadcasting environments. Our proposed scheme exploits the division-based broadcasting technique. In the division-based broadcasting technique, segments are broadcast so that clients can receive them until the time to play each of them. Also, we consider the prefetch of video data. By these techniques, we reduce interruption time effectively. Our simulation experiments revealed that our proposed scheme could reduce interruption time further than conventional schemes.