Quality of service for digital video broadc

High-powered direct broadcast satellites can be used to transmit large volumes of data directly to extensive users or user groups. This technology is based on a technique of carrying IP packets over an DVB/MPEG-2 (digital video broadcasting) stream. Transmission of IP packets over an DVB/MPEG-2 stream is not new technology; however, providing a guaranteed QoS (end-to-end) in such networks is a novel approach, which has not been widely researched. There exists a need to provide a multi-tier QoS architecture for such networks. For example, a satellite data broadcasting company has a large satellite earth station capable of communicating data over satellite up to the full transponder rate, typically greater than 100 Mbps. A teleport such as this prefers to sell portions of its bandwidth to other data broadcasting companies, such as government data hubs, banking institutions and Internet service providers (ISPs). These middle companies in turn sell bandwidth to end users. The problem is the teleport needs to offer different levels of QoS to the middle companies, who in turn need to provide different levels of QoS to end users. This problem is compounded by the need to sell differentiated services to competing companies. Furthermore, end users typically would pay for constant, variable, or unspecified bit rate services. In this paper we present a design of a multi-tier QoS architecture to suit the needs of providing multi-tier levels of differentiated services. We analyze this design using a queuing model which shows promising results