Performance Analysis of a Finite Duration Multichannel Delivery Method in IPTV

Reducing the channel change time is one of the major concerns of IPTV network deployment. This paper proposes multiple channels being delivered to household set top boxes, with a finite duration, to reduce channel change time. Unlike existing proprietary solutions that require additional equipment, or complex interactions between set top boxes and provisioning devices, the proposed method is easy to implement. We develop mathematical models to evaluate the bandwidth demand and channel change time of this method. We find that in a typical setup, the channel change time is reduced to 20%, yet the peak bandwidth increase on carrier's uplink is less than 50%. We compare the investigated method with existing ones, and argue that it is a promising alternative in terms of required bandwidth, channel change time and implementation complexity.