Recursive frequency-splitting scheme for broadcasting hot videos in VOD service

Abstract

One way to broadcast a popular/hot video is to let multiple users share a few channels. The stress on the scarce channels can be alleviated without sacrificing viewer waiting time. One common approach is to partition the video into fixed-length segments, which are broadcast on several channels periodically. Two representative approaches are the Fast Broadcasting scheme and the PAGODA scheme, which can broadcast a video using k channels by having new viewers wait no longer than Theta(D/2(k)) and Theta(D/5(k/2)) time, respectively, where D is the length of the video. In this paper, we propose a new scheme, called Recursive Frequency Splitting (RFS), that significantly improves on existing schemes in terms of viewer waiting time. Some lower bounds on the viewers' waiting time are also developed.