Smoothing algorithms for the delivery of compressed video

The transport of compressed video without loss of picture quality requires the network to support large fluctuations in bandwidth requirements. This paper introduces a lossless smoothing algorithm designed to satisfy any given set of buffer and delay constraints for both stored and live video applications with the goal of minimizing the number of rate changes and maximum rate. The algorithm is shown to be effective in smoothing bursty bit streams as illustrated by the experimental demonstration of MPEG encoded video.