Overlay Multicast Network for IPTV Service using Bandwidth Adaptive Distributed Streaming Scheme

This paper introduces ONLIS(Overlay Multicast Network for Live IPTV Service), a novel overlay multicast network optimized to deliver live broadcast IPTV stream. We analyzed IPTV reference model of ITU-T IPTV standardization group in terms of network and stream delivery from the source networks to the customer networks. Based on the analysis, we divide IPTV reference model into 3 networks; source network, core network and access network, ION(Infrastructure-based Overlay Multicast Network) is employed for the source and core networks and PON(P2P-based Overlay Multicast Network) is applied to the access networks. ION provides an efficient, reliable and stable stream distribution with very negligible delay while PON provides bandwidth efficient and cost effective streaming with a little tolerable delay. The most important challenge in live P2P streaming is to reduce end-to-end delay without sacrificing stream quality. Actually, there is always a trade-off between delay & stream quality in conventional live P2P streaming system. To solve this problem, we propose two approaches. Firstly, we propose DSPT(Distributed Streaming P2P Tree) which takes advantage of combinational overlay multicasting. In DSPT, a peer doesn't fully rely on SP(Supplying Peer) to get the live stream, but it cooperates with its local ANR(Access Network Relay) to reduce delay and improve stream quality. When RP detects bandwidth drop in SP, it immediately switches the connection from SP to ANR and continues to receive stream without any packet loss. DSPT uses distributed P2P streaming technique to let the peer share the stream to the extent of its available bandwidth. This means, if RP can't receive the whole stream from SP due to lack of SP's uploading bandwidth, then it receives only partial stream from SP and the rest from the ANR. The proposed distributed P2P streaming improves P2P networking efficiency.