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Enhancement of channel switching scenario and IGMPv3 Protocol Implementation in Multicast IPTV Networks

Authors:
Benoit Hilt
Mounir Sarni
Pascal Lorenz

Keywords: zapping time, IGMP protocol, IPTV, bandwidth demand, channel overlapping.

Abstract:
Nowadays, delivering television over IP technologies is increasingly used by Internet Service Providers. Having using for years the traditional TV broadcasting systems, viewers expect at least the same Quality of Experience from IPTV providers. In this paper we focus on the zapping time which is one of the most important elements for the quality experienced by the viewers. To reduce it, we propose to invert the leaving and joining operations which are traditionally used in this order. As a second step, we modify the source code of the IGMPv3 protocol implementation to leave and join IPTV channels by sending a unique message. To evaluate our solution in terms of bandwidth overhead andblackout time we conduct simulations using IGMPv2 and IGMPv3 signalling. We show that with our proposition, in each case, the overhead stays limited in the network core. Moreover, the overhead tends to decrease when the number of the active viewers increases. Additionally, the proposed approach reduces the blackout time during a zapping process.

Pages: 167 to 181

Copyright: Copyright (c) to authors, 2009. Used with permission.

Publication date: December 1, 2009

Published in: journal

ISSN: 1942-2644