Comparative analysis of recent nVoD protocols with error correction capabilities for noisy channels

In the nVoD (near Video-on-Demand) paradigm, video is distributed through broadcast channels with constrained bandwidth, yielding a bounded playback start time regardless of the number of users. In other words, there is unlimited scalability for low bandwidth cost, at the expense of a bounded start time. Thus, regarding bandwidth, nVoD schemas are well suited for wireless channels, but they do not address the problem of packet losses. Recent research based on digital fountains and the intrinsic redundancy of nVoD transmission provide correction capabilities with little or zero overhead, with negligible impact on bandwidth usage. This paper analyzes the most recent proposals and compares them in terms of error correction performance and memory consumption. ©2010 IEEE.