An optimal discrete rate allocation for overlay video multicasting

Recently, overlay multicasting has been considered as an important approach for providing multicast services over the Internet. Due to the limited capacity and the heterogeneity of the Internet clients, using overlay multicasting for video streaming applications is a challenging task. Designing bandwidth-efficient overlay structures and optimal resource allocation are the most important techniques that can be considered to deal with these challenges. In this paper, we propose an optimal distributed rate allocation scheme to solve the rate allocation problem in overlay multirate video multicasting systems. Our objective in the optimal rate allocation algorithm is the optimization of the overall video quality perceived within the multicast group members that organize themselves into an overlay tree. In our proposed solution, each overlay node of a given overlay tree allocates the rates to its children in a way that the overall video quality perceived in the multicast group is optimized. In addition to the mathematical analysis of the algorithm, its effectiveness is supported through simulation.