Video-on-Demand Session Management

A Video-on-Demand (VoD) system provides a service which enables a user of the system to request in real time the transmission of live video from a collection of available video material. A VoD system is probably one of the most complex services to be provided over BISDN networks. Such a system consists of several independent service gateways and video servers with which the user Set-Top Box needs to interact during the session lifetime. The paper shows how a VoD session can be modeled as a Finite-State-Machine (FSM). The states in the VoD session FSM represent the calls comprising the session. Every call provides the STB with some preliminary service, or with the selected video application stream. The transitions among states represent call set-up and take-down protocols. The FSM model is an important design tool, which illuminates the various options and trade-o s involved in the design of a VoD session. Address: HP Israel Science Center, Technion City, Haifa 32000, Israel. Email: [email protected] Address: Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, 1501 Page Mill Road, Palo Alto, CA 94304-1126, U.S.A. Email: [email protected]