A simple but efficient broadcasting protocol for video-on-demand

We present a simple fixed-delay broadcasting (SFDB) protocol for video-on-demand. Our protocol assumes that each video to be broadcast will be partitioned into segments of equal duration to be transmitted over a fixed number of video channels. In addition, it requires all customers to wait for the same fixed delay before watching the video they have selected. Our protocol uses time-division multiplexing to obtain the best transmission schedule for the channel that broadcasts the first segments of the video. The same multiplexing scheme is then reproduced on all the remaining channels. Despite its simplicity, our simple fixed delay broadcasting protocol achieves waiting times comparable to those of much more sophisticated broadcasting protocols. We also show how the protocol can be modified to handle set-top boxes that cannot receive data at more than two or three times the video consumption rate.