Multicast distribution for multimedia on demand services

Recent advances in information and communication technologies have made multimedia on demand services technically and economically feasible. An important aspect of such systems is the resource sharing technique, which allows the simultaneous service of a large number of users with considerable savings in terms of network bandwidth and server resources. In this paper, we report the results of a study which analyzes batching and buffering techniques, which consist of serving with a single stream all video requests issued during a short interval of time. The mathematical model allows the evaluation of the main system performance (probability distribution of the number of streams, percentage reduction of resources etc.) as a function of load and batching interval duration. Simulation experiments confirm the analytical model in the whole range of considered conditions.