Stream merging for live continuous broadcast with time-shifting

We consider live continuous broadcast (such as radio or TV) to which users can join with time-shifting. They can join the broadcast at time t and receive the broadcast of time t - w for some offset parameter w ges 0. The simplest implementation that supports such a feature allocates a dedicated channel for each arrival time t and offset value w. Using such a technique, the server bandwidth quickly becomes a bottleneck. We adapt the stream merging technique to the time-shifting model, which allows us to greatly reduce the required server bandwidth. In addition to the application of distributing popular media, there are many other applications such as distance learning and large Internet events that could benefit from the use of time-shifting