The objective of this research is to develop a suite of techniques to allow video distribution at low cost. We explore a novel version of multicast called Dynamic Multicast, a clever way to deliver videos to homes called 2-Phase Service Model, and an efficient technique for disseminating videos on demand over satellites called Skyscraper Broadcasting. - Dynamic Multicast is designed to address the network-I/O bottleneck which hinders the server from taking full advantage of the network capacity. With this technique, the system is able to support many more simultaneous multicasts than the server is physically capable of. - Skyscraper is designed to exploit the unique broadcast capability of satellites. In this environment, since the bandwidth requirement is proportional to the number of videos, not the number of users, we have a very scalable technology. In terms of costs, the fact that this approach requires essentially no wiring makes it very appealing. - The third technique, 2-Phase Service Model, is intended for environments where the video playback requires a higher bit rate than the physical medium can sustain. Home users can benefit from this technology. It offers a very effective environment for searching high-resolution video libraries from home. To demonstrate the feasibility of these ideas, we implement three video-on-demand systems. We also conduct experiments to assess the performance of these techniques using real video data. For more information on this project, please visit the web page at www.dsg.cs.ucf.edu/NSF/nsf.html.
