Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation for Stored VBR Video in ATM End Systems

The paper introduces a scheme for delivery of variable bit-rate (VBR) coded video from a video server over ATM networks. To solve the problem of long term variations in bandwidth requirements, a dynamic bandwidth allocation scheme is proposed. This is based on renegotiation of bandwidth during the duration of the call. An algorithm is presented, that determines optimized renegotiation points for a given VBR coded video by minimizing cost functions. Appropriate cost functions, and methods for reducing the run-time expense of this optimizing algorithm are outlined. Results are presented for real VBR MPEG video. The results show, that dynamic bandwidth allocation reduces the bandwidth requirements significantly and that the presented method leads to lower costs compared to other known renegotiation schemes.