Channel allocation for large scale video-on-demand systems

In this paper, an optimal channel allocation is developed for a large scale video-on-demand system to allocate transmission resources according to the popularity of videos. In the proposed framework, a video will be delivered to customers through one of the three channels, namely broadcast, multicast, and unicast, depending on whether the video is very hot, hot or cold, respectively, A novel algorithm is developed to allocate the appropriate delivery channel for the video according to its popularity so that not only the overall bandwidth of the system is minimized but also a preset quality of service (QoS) is provided for each customer.