Fast broadcasting for hot video access

Using multiple channels to broadcast a popular video can reduce the viewer's waiting time. With the same bandwidth allocation as conventional broadcasting schemes, pyramid broadcasting schemes can provide users with shorter waiting time. This paper presents a new broadcasting method, which can reduce the user's waiting time much greater than previous schemes. With the same waiting requirement for a popular movie, the new algorithm needs much less bandwidth and, thus, greatly saves the bandwidth requirements. At the client end, the buffer requirement is in between previous pyramid schemes. However, using the new scheme, if a set-top box has no buffer, its user can still have the movie with longer waiting time, but previous pyramid schemes cannot provide continuous video service without buffer.