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QAM Resource Allocation in Mixed-Format VoD Systems

Jiong Gong1, David Reed1, Terry Shaw1, Daniel Vivanco1, and Jim Martin2
1. Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. 858 Coal Creek Circle
2. Department of Computer Science Clemson University, USA

Abstract— A Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM)resource allocation algorithm for Video on Demand (VoD)traffic is presented. Based on stream encoding rates andavailable system capacity, the proposed on-line non-mixingalgorithm will select the QAM modulator that maximizessystem efficiency in a VoD service group. A discrete eventsimulator has been developed to compare the performanceof the proposed algorithm against two commonly deployedalgorithms known as the least-loaded and most-loadedalgorithms. Our analysis suggests that the non-mixingalgorithm performs better than the two algorithms under arange of assumptions that take into account peakconcurrent usage rate and traffic mixture composition. Weshow that the non-mixing algorithm leads to an average of4.39% higher allowed peak usage rate than the least-loadedand most-loaded algorithms.

Index Terms—VoD, Broadband access, Capacity planning,Congestion control, Traffic modeling, Resource allocation,Network simulation.

Cite: Jiong Gong, David Reed, Terry Shaw, Daniel Vivanco and Jim Martin, "QAM Resource Allocation in Mixed-Format VoD Systems," Journal of Communications, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 1-9, 2007.