A SNR-based Multi-channel Multicast Scheme for Popular Video in Wireless Networks

Multi-channel multicast/broadcast solution is used to improve Quality of Service (QoS) /Quality of Experience (QoE) of Video-on-Demand (VoD) service in mobile Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) applications. In this paper, a SNR-based multi-channel multicast scheme (SBMM) for popular video in wireless networks is proposed. Different from the existing fast data broadcasting scheme (FB), the wireless channel Signal Noise Ratio (SNR) is taken into account in SBMM. The higher-SNR channel is assigned with a higher channel rate. The higher-rate channel is used to transmit higher priority chunks, through which users’ waiting time is reduced and bandwidth utilization is improved. Simulation results show that 22.11% of FB’s start-up delay is reduced in average by SBMM and 49.52% at most. Moreover, 4.01% of FB’s download time is reduced in average by SBMM and 8.25% at most in the price of a small increase in buffer requirements. The additional space taken is 2.11% of the total video size in average and 6.19% at most. At the same time, SBMM can use bandwidth effectively through delivering chunks according to different priorities. As hardware technology develops, it is reasonable to reduce users’ waiting time further in the price of a small increase in buffer requirements. Index Terms —VoD, waiting time, buffer requirements, bandwidth utilization.