Video Multicast Over the Internet

Multicast (multipoint) distribution of video is an important component of many existing and future networked services. Today's Internet lacks support for quality of service (QoS) assurance which makes the transmission of real-time traffic (such a video) challeging. In addition, the heterogeneity of the Internet's transmission resources and end-systems makes it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to agree on acceptable traffic characterization among multiple receivers of the same video stream. In this paper we survey techniques that have been proposed for transmitting video in this environment. These techniques generally involve adaptation of the video traffic carried over the network to match receiver requirements and network conditions.