VIDEO AGGREGATION - ADAPTING VIDEO TRAFFIC FOR TRANSPORT OVER BROAD-BAND NETWORKS BY INTEGRATING DATA-COMPRESSION AND STATISTICAL MULTIPLEXING

This paper investigates video aggregation, a concept that integrates c ompression and statistical multiplexing of video information for trans port over a communication network, We focus on the transmission of a g roup of video sessions as a bundle, the practical examples of which in clude entertainment-video broadcast and video-on-demand (VoD). In this situation, the advantage of constant bit-rate (CBR) transport (which facilitates simple network management and operation) and the advantage of variable bit-rate (VER) video compression (which yields smoother i mage quality) can be achieved simultaneously, We show that it is bette r to integrate compression and statistical multiplexing before the bun dle of video traffic enters the network than performing them as indepe ndent processes, We present experimental results which indicate the ad vantages of video aggregation in terms of superior image quality and e fficient bandwidth usage.