Multi-path channel allocation for multimedia stream services with multi-rate supports

In this paper, we propose a novel bandwidth allocation scheme for video-on-demand service with multirate services support in a distributed multimedia server. It takes availability of network link bandwidth into account, while most routing protocols consider network topology only. Considering variance of available access bandwidth users could have, most streaming service providers provide multirate stream choices (e.g. base-rate for dial-up users and high-data-rate for users with LAN or other broadband connections) for the same programs. Current mechanisms require the user to do the choice without assistance of system intelligence. The proposed algorithm can not only provide optimal bandwidth utilization in the network based on the multi-path scheme, but also has intelligence to choose the proper data-rate for the designated program with respect to network traffic. In the proposed scheme, we extend the mechanism to a more flexible way to let the system do the admission control based on the user´s request preferences and maximization of system utilization