Inter-Stream FEC Method for Multiserver Content Distribution

In this paper, we aim to establish a seamless and highly robust content distribution technology in the environment of multiserver content distribution networks by focusing on Forward Error Correction (FEC) as an error recovery method. We propose a new concept, Inter-Stream FEC, which is a method for data recovery involving several streams, using redundant parity streams generated via Inter-Stream cooperation. The attraction of the Inter-Stream FEC method is that it can be implemented independently of existing per content FEC methods. As a result, impairment due to heavy packet dropping in a network locality can be repaired by using other healthy original streams and parity streams. After describing the details of our proposed method, we evaluate our proposal by computer simulation to confirm its efficiency.