In contrast to classical assumptions in Video on Demand (VoD)
research, the main requirements for VoD in the Internet are
adaptiveness, support of heterogeneity, and last not least high
scalability. Hierarchically layered video encoding is particularly
well suited to deal with adaptiveness and heterogeneity support for
video streaming. A distributed caching architecture is key to a
scalable VoD solution in the Internet. Thus, the combination of
caching and layered video streaming is promising for an Internet
VoD system, yet, requires thoughts about some new issues and challenges,
e.g., how to keep layered transmissions TCP-friendly. In this paper,
we investigate one particular of these issues: how can a TCP-friendly
transmission exploit its fair share of network resources taking into
account that the constrained granularity of layer encoded video
inhibits an exact adaptation to actual transmission rates. We present
a new technique that makes use of retransmissions of missing segments
for a cached layered video to claim the fair share within a
TCP-friendly session. Based on simulative experiments the potential
and applicability of the technique, which we also call fair share
claiming is shown. Moreover, a design for the integration of fair
share claiming in streaming applications which are supported by
caching is devised.
