A Video Data Distribution Method for Flexible Bandwidth Allocation in Hybrid Broadcasting Environments

Abstract

Due to the recent development of wireless broadcasting technologies, video data distribution systems on hybrid broadcasting environments has attracted great attention. In some video distribution methods for hybrid broadcasting environments, the server broadcasts some pieces via the broadcasting channel and delivers them to all the clients to effectively reduce the interruptions times. They fix the bandwidth allocation to predict when the clients finish receiving pieces. However, the server can change the bandwidth allocation flexibly in recent hybrid broadcasting environments such as MBMS (multimedia broadcast and multicast services) mode of 5G networks. In this paper, we propose a video data distribution method for flexible bandwidth allocation in hybrid broadcasting environments. In our proposed method, the server broadcasts the requested pieces from the clients only when the transmission time via the broadcasting channel is earlier than that via the communication channel. The server allocates the bandwidths so as to reduce the interruption times further. Our simulation results revealed that our proposed method achieves the shortest interruption time by appropriately allocating bandwidths.