A Broadcasting Scheme for Continuous Media Data with Restrictions in Data Division

Due to the recent proliferation of digital broadcasting, various schemes for broadcasting continuous media data have been studied. In general broadcasting systems, since data is broadcast repetitively, clients have to wait until their desired data is broadcast. These schemes reduce this waiting time by dividing the data into several segments of equal size. However, data often have appropriate dividing boundaries. For example, data encoded by MPEG2 can be played every GOP (Group of Pictures). Hence, it is reasonable to divide the data into each GOP from the viewpoint of efficient implementation. In this paper, we propose a scheme to reduce the waiting time considering such restrictions. Our proposed scheme divides a continuous media data at every unit for playing portions of the data. By scheduling divided data so that clients finish receiving a unit before starting to play the unit, waiting time is reduced. : Broadcasting, Continuous Media Data, Video on Demand, Group of Pictures, Scheduling