Scalable layered MPEG-2 video multicast architecture

Nowadays, multimedia systems disseminating realtime video information over the Internet are becoming increasingly popular. However, the heterogeneity of network components and end systems, and the lack of congestion control in the Internet pose a major challenge in delivering video. In this paper, a layered multicast architecture is presented to achieve efficient distribution of MPEG-2 video streams over the Internet. The video data is partitioned in a hierarchical manner and transmitted in different multicast channels. The participants automatically subscribe to a number of channels based upon the network congestion and the capabilities of the end systems. This architecture provides scalability on both bandwidth availability level and on the end system capability level.