Multicast pre-distribution VoD system

The number of users of video on demand (VoD) services has increased dramatically. In VoD services, the demand for content items changes greatly hour to hour. Because service providers are required to maintain a stable service during peak hours, they need to design system resources based on the demand at peak time, so reducing the server load at this time is important. Although multicast delivery, in which multiple users requesting the same content item are supported by one delivery session, is effective for suppressing the server load during peak hours, user response times can increase greatly. A peer-to-peer-assisted delivery system, in which users download content items from other users watching the same content item, is also effective for reducing server load. However, system performance depends on selfish user behavior, and optimizing the usage of system resources is difficult. Moreover, complex operation, i.e., switching the delivery multicast tree or source peers, is necessary to support video cassette recorder (VCR) operation, e.g., fast forward, rewind, and pause. In this paper, we propose to reduce server load without increasing user response time by multicasting popular content items to all users independent of actual requests as well as providing on-demand unicast delivery. Through a numerical evaluation that uses actual VoD access log data, we clarify the effectiveness of the proposed method.