A framework for supporting previewing and VCR operations in a low bandwidth environment

We propose a novel delivery mechanism called 2-Phase Service Model to deliver video data to home users connected to the Internet through a low-bandwidth device such as a modem. In our scheme, non-adjacent fragments of the requested video file are first downloaded to the client during Initialization Phase. The missing fragments are transmitted to the client as the video is being played out, using a novel pipelining technique. This scheme offers several benefits as follows. First, it allows the user to perform a quick preview through the video with minimal delay. Second, it naturally supports VCR functionality with almost no delay as demonstrated by the simulation results shown in the paper. Finally, our mathematical analysis shows that despite the desirable features it offers, 2-Phase Service Model does not incur any more initialization delay than-that of the conventional pipelining technique.