We propose a new method for the on-demand delivery of streaming media over a small number of multicast channels to large numbers of receivers called Truncated Exponential Partitioning (TEP). Objects delivered using TEP are consumed from the beginning to the end in a linear fashion. This allows their data to be segmented and carried in different channels that are scheduled so that each can arrive just in time for presentation. As a consequence, the amount of storage required in the receiver, access latency, and bandwidth required for a desired level of performance are minimized. Quantitative expressions for these metrics are derived for TEP and compared to a similar scheme skyscraper broadcasting (SB) scheme from which the design of TEP was based. Simulations show that TEP offers superior performance to the SE scheme. Finally, an architecture for delivering movies over cable networks using TEP is proposed.

Reliable multicast protocols scale only as well as their ability to localize traffic. This is true for repair requests, repairs, and the session traffic that enables receivers to suppress extraneous requests and repairs. We propose a new reliable multicast traffic localization technique called Scoped Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest with Forward Error Correction (SHARQFEC). SHARQFEC operates in an end-to-end fashion and localizes traffic using a hierarchy of administratively scoped regions. Session traffic is further reduced through the use of a novel method for indirectly determining the distances between session members. For large sessions, this mechanism reduces the amount of session traffic by several orders of magnitude over non-scoped protocols such as Scalable Reliable Multicast (SRM). Forward Error Correction is selectively added to regions which are experiencing greater loss, thereby reducing the volume of repair traffic and recovery times. Receivers request additional repairs as necessary. Simulations show that SHARQFEC out performs both SRM and non-scoped hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest / Forward Error Correction protocols. Assuming the widespread deployment of administrative scoping, SHARQFEC could conceivably provide scalable reliable delivery to tens of millions of receivers without huge increases in network bandwidth.

This paper describes a new video coding algorithm [Kermode 1994] that extends the traditional hybrid transform coding techniques used in MPEG in two ways. First, pictures are analyzed and segmented into a number of regions roughly corresponding to the background and any moving foreground objects. These regions are then encoded independently from one another thereby incorporating degree of useful content into the encoded representation beyond the pictures themselves. Second, the new algorithm also stores the background regions from several frames which can then be used to construct an artificial image at a higher resolution than that of the original background. Furthermore, both of these features are implemented at no overall cost in compression efficiency. In fact the new algorithm still outperforms MPEG, even for particularly degenerate sequences where the underlying assumption used for segmentation is broken.