Bandwidth allocation and admission control schemes for the distribution of MPEG streams in.pdf

Bandwidth Allocation and Admission Control Schemesfor the Distribution of MPEG Streams in VOD SystemsMarwan Krunzy, George Apostolopoulosz, and Satish K. TripathixAbstractLarge-scale deployment and successful commercialization of digital video systems will stronglydepend on their ability to provide cost-eective services to potential customers. Network band-width is one of the major factors that impact the cost of a video service. In this paper, we presenta simple and ecient bandwidth allocation approach for transporting MPEG-compressed, archivedvideo over a wide-area network. Our approach exploits the periodic nature of MPEG compressionto provide end users with stringent and deterministic QoS guarantees. Bandwidth is allocatedon-the- y while video connections are being established and terminated. We derive the worst-caseblocking probability at the video server, and show how this blocking probability can be used indimensioning the capacities of the bandwidth \pipes that extend from the server to destinationhead-end switches. For online admission-control purposes, we present a simple CAC strategy tobe used in conjunction with the proposed bandwidth allocation approach. The eectiveness of ourapproach (in terms of reducing the per-stream allocated bandwidth) is evaluated through simula-tions of a video distribution network that consists of a server and seven switches. Finally, issuesrelated to the practicality of the proposed approach and its implementation feasibility are discussed.Keywords: bandwidth allocation, MPEG, VBR video, trac envelope, statistical multiplexing.1 IntroductionBroadband networks (e.g., B-ISDN/ATM) are expected to support a wide range of multimedia applica-tions, such as video-on-demand (VOD), HDTV, and multimedia teleconferencing. These applicationsgenerate video streams that must be transported in a timely manner to ensure coherent reception andplayback at the receiver. Video trac imposes huge demand on network bandwidth, which has been am