In today’s DVB-T/H (Digital Video Broadcasting-Terrestrial/Handheld) systems, broadcasting is employed, meaning that TV programs are sent over all transmitters, also where there are no viewers. This is inefficient utilization of spectrum and transmitter equipment. IP multicasting is increasingly used for IP-TV over fixed broadband access. In this thesis, IP multicasting is proposed to also be used for terrestrial and mobile TV, meaning that TV programs are only transmitted where viewers have sent join messages over an interaction channel. This would substantially improve the system spectral efficiency (SSE) in (bit/s)/Hz/site, allowing reduced spectrum for the same amount of TV programs. It would even further improve the multiuser system spectral efficiency (MSSE – a measure defined in this study), allowing increased number of TV programs to be transmitted over a given spectrum. Further efficiency or coverage improvement, may be achieved by forming single-frequency networks (SFN), i.e. groups of adjacent transmitters sending the same signal simultaneously, on the same carrier frequency. The combination of multicasting and SFNs is also the principle of eMBMS (evolved Multicast Broadcast Multimedia Service) for cellular mobile TV over 4G LTE. PARPS (packet and resource plan scheduling) is an optimized approach to dynamically forming SFNs that is employed in this study. The target applications are DVB-T/H and eMBMS. Combining SFNs with non-continuous transmission (switching transmitters on and off dynamically) may give even further gain, and is used in LTE, but is difficult to achieve in DVB-T/H. Seven schemes are suggested and analyzed, in view to compare unicasting, multicasting and broadcasting, with or without SFN, with or without PARPS, and with or without continuous transmission. The schemes are evaluated in terms of coverage probability, SSE and MSSE. The schemes are simulated in MATLAB for a system of 4 transmitters, with random viewer positions. Zipf-law TV program selection is employed, using both a homogeneous and heterogeneous user behavior model. The SFN schemes provide substantially better system spectral efficiency compared to the multi-frequency networks (MFN) schemes. IP multicasting over non-continuous transmission dynamic SFN achieves as much as 905% and 1054% gain respectively in system spectral efficiency and multiuser system  spectral efficiency, from broadcasting over MFN, and 425% and 442% gain respectively from  IP multicasting over MFN, for heterogeneous fading case. Additionally, the SFN schemes gives a diversity gain of 3 dB over MFN, that may be utilized to increase the coverage probability by 4.35% for the same data rate, or to increase the data rate by 27 % for the same coverage as MFN.   Keywords: IP multicasting, broadcasting, coverage probability, system spectral efficiency, multiuser system spectral efficiency, DVB-T/H, eMBMS, mobile TV, IP-TV, SFN, MFN, Dynamic SFN, PARPS, homogeneous, heterogeneous, zipf-law

Multicasting in Long-Term Evolution (LTE) environments poses several challenges if it is to be reliably implemented. Neither retransmission schemes nor Forward Error Correction (FEC), the traditional error correction approaches, can be readily applied to this system of communication if bandwidth and resources are to be used efficiently. A large number of network parameters and topology variables can influence the cost of telecommunication in such a system. These need to be considered when selecting an appropriate error correction technique for a certain LTE multicast deployment. This dissertation develops a cost model to investigate the costs associated with over-the-air LTE multicasting when different error correction techniques are applied. The benefit of this simplified model is an easily implementable and fast method to evaluate the communications costs of different LTE multicast deployments with the application of error correction techniques. / MIng (Computer and Electronic Engineering), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Wong, Ho Yin Starsky. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 81-85). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Motivation --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Problems of IP multicast --- p.2 / Chapter 1.3 --- End-system multicast --- p.3 / Chapter 1.4 --- The Challenge of ESM --- p.3 / Chapter 1.5 --- Document Roadmap --- p.4 / Chapter 2 --- System Architecture --- p.5 / Chapter 3 --- ESM Protocol --- p.8 / Chapter 3.1 --- ESM: Tree Formation Protocol --- p.8 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- Example of Tree Formation Protocol --- p.14 / Chapter 3.1.2 --- "The proof of ""Tree Formation Protocol always main- tains a tree topology""" --- p.15 / Chapter 3.1.3 --- "The proof of ""Tree Formation Protocol guarantees that there is no partition in the ESM-tree""" --- p.16 / Chapter 3.1.4 --- State Transition Diagram for Tree Formation Protocol --- p.16 / Chapter 3.2 --- ESM: Data Transfer --- p.28 / Chapter 3.3 --- ESM: Tree Optimization Protocol CONTENTS --- p.30 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- Example of Tree Optimization Protocol --- p.37 / Chapter 3.3.2 --- "The proof of ""Distributed Locking Protocol avoids loop formation and tree partition""" --- p.38 / Chapter 3.3.3 --- State Transition Diagram for Tree Optimization Protocol --- p.39 / Chapter 3.4 --- ESM: Node Leaving Protocol --- p.46 / Chapter 3.4.1 --- Example of ESM: Node Leaving Protocol --- p.51 / Chapter 3.4.2 --- State Transition Diagram for Node Leaving Protocol --- p.53 / Chapter 4 --- Performance Evaluation --- p.60 / Chapter 4.1 --- Experiment 1 - Comparisons between IP Unicast and ESM --- p.61 / Chapter 4.2 --- Experiment 2 - Comparisons between different ESM topologies --- p.64 / Chapter 4.3 --- Experiment 3 - Comparison between different thresholds for tree optimization operation --- p.67 / Chapter 4.4 --- Experiment 4 - NS2 Simulation --- p.69 / Chapter 5 --- Related Work --- p.74 / Chapter 6 --- Concluding Remarks --- p.78 / Chapter 6.1 --- Contributions --- p.78 / Chapter 6.2 --- Future Work --- p.79 / Chapter 6.2.1 --- Large-scale Experiments --- p.79 / Chapter 6.2.2 --- Evaluation for non-reliable data transfer --- p.79 / Chapter 6.2.3 --- Investigation of tree-optimization activation threshold --- p.80

by Lin Hon Man. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 59-[63]). / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Organization of Thesis --- p.3 / Chapter 2 --- Principles of Multicast Cross-Path Switches --- p.4 / Chapter 2.1 --- Introduction --- p.4 / Chapter 2.2 --- Unicast Cross-Path switch --- p.5 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Routing properties in Clos networks --- p.5 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Quasi-static routing procedures --- p.5 / Chapter 2.2.3 --- Capacity and Route Assignment --- p.7 / Chapter 2.3 --- Multicast Cross-Path Switch --- p.8 / Chapter 2.3.1 --- Scheme 1 - Cell replication performed at both input and output stages --- p.10 / Chapter 2.3.2 --- Scheme 2 - Cell replication performed only at the input stage --- p.10 / Chapter 3 --- Architectures --- p.14 / Chapter 3.1 --- Introduction --- p.14 / Chapter 3.2 --- Input Module Design (Scheme 1) --- p.16 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- Input Header Translator --- p.16 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- Input Module Controller --- p.17 / Chapter 3.2.3 --- Input Replication Network (Scheme 1) --- p.19 / Chapter 3.2.4 --- Routing Network --- p.23 / Chapter 3.3 --- Central Modules --- p.24 / Chapter 3.4 --- Output Module Design (Scheme 1) --- p.24 / Chapter 3.5 --- Input Module Design (Scheme 2) --- p.25 / Chapter 3.5.1 --- Input Header Translator (Scheme 2) --- p.26 / Chapter 3.5.2 --- Input Module Controller (Scheme 2) --- p.27 / Chapter 3.5.3 --- Input Replication Network (Scheme 2) --- p.28 / Chapter 3.6 --- Output Module Design (Scheme 2) --- p.29 / Chapter 4 --- Performance Evaluations --- p.31 / Chapter 4.1 --- Introduction --- p.31 / Chapter 4.2 --- Traffic characteristics --- p.31 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- Fanout distribution --- p.31 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- Middle stage traffic load and its calculation --- p.32 / Chapter 4.3 --- Throughput Performance --- p.34 / Chapter 4.4 --- Delay Performance --- p.37 / Chapter 4.4.1 --- Input Stage Delay --- p.38 / Chapter 4.4.2 --- Output Stage Delay --- p.39 / Chapter 4.5 --- Cell Loss Performance --- p.43 / Chapter 4.5.1 --- Cell Loss due to Buffer Overflow --- p.44 / Chapter 4.5.2 --- Cell Loss Due to Output Contention --- p.45 / Chapter 4.6 --- Complexities --- p.50 / Chapter 5 --- Conclusions --- p.57 / Bibliography --- p.59

by Jin Mai. / Thesis submitted in: June 1998. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-[67]). / Abstract also in Chinese. / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Background and Motivation --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Organization of the thesis --- p.8 / Chapter 2 --- Principles of WDM Cross-Path Switch --- p.11 / Chapter 2.1 --- Principles of path scheduling --- p.11 / Chapter 2.2 --- Call setup and path rearrangement --- p.15 / Chapter 2.3 --- ABR control --- p.17 / Chapter 3 --- Star coupler and WDM path scheduling --- p.20 / Chapter 3.1 --- Star coupler and other WDM ATM switches --- p.20 / Chapter 3.2 --- Two schemes of implementation --- p.22 / Chapter 4 --- input/output modules and local routing --- p.26 / Chapter 4.1 --- Shared buffer memory switch --- p.26 / Chapter 4.2 --- local routing at input/output modules --- p.29 / Chapter 5 --- Multicasting --- p.32 / Chapter 5.1 --- Two multicasting schemes --- p.32 / Chapter 5.2 --- Call blocking --- p.36 / Chapter 6 --- Performance --- p.37 / Chapter 6.1 --- Introduction --- p.37 / Chapter 6.2 --- Switch complexity --- p.38 / Chapter 6.3 --- Speed up --- p.40 / Chapter 6.4 --- Two multicasting schemes --- p.41 / Chapter 7 --- Switch Model and Operation --- p.47 / Chapter 8 --- Conclusions --- p.50 / Chapter A --- Effective bandwidth and QoS guarantee --- p.52 / Chapter A.l --- ATM service categories and QoS parameters --- p.52 / Chapter A.2 --- Effective bandwidth for single source --- p.53 / Chapter A.2.1 --- Markovian on/off source approach --- p.54 / Chapter A.2.2 --- Leaky bucket regulated source --- p.55 / Chapter A.3 --- Effective bandwidth for multiplexed sources --- p.60 / Chapter A.3.1 --- Gaussian model approach --- p.60 / Bibliography --- p.62

Wong Kar Yiu. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 109-111). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.ii / Acknowledgement --- p.iv / Table of Contents --- p.v / List of Figure --- p.vii / Chapter Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.9 / Chapter 1.1 --- Introduction --- p.9 / Chapter 1.2 --- Background --- p.11 / Chapter 1.3 --- Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) --- p.15 / Chapter 1.4 --- Main contribution --- p.16 / Chapter 1.5 --- Thesis organization --- p.18 / Chapter Chapter 2. --- Related Work --- p.19 / Chapter 2.1 --- Multicast routing in general --- p.19 / Chapter 2.2 --- Multicast routing techniques --- p.22 / Chapter 2.3 --- Best-effort multicast routing --- p.25 / Chapter 2.4 --- Quality-of-Service (QoS) multicast routing --- p.30 / Chapter 2.5 --- Adaptive multicast routing --- p.34 / Chapter Chapter 3. --- Load-Sensitive Multicast Routing Protocol (LSMRP) --- p.37 / Chapter 3.1 --- Overview --- p.37 / Chapter 3.2 --- Problem Formulation --- p.37 / Chapter 3.3 --- Types of ant in LSMRP --- p.39 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- Forward Ants --- p.39 / Chapter 3.3.2 --- Random Ants --- p.41 / Chapter 3.3.3 --- Backward Ants --- p.42 / Chapter 3.3.4 --- Multicast Ants --- p.44 / Chapter 3.3.5 --- Multicast Backward Ants --- p.44 / Chapter 3.4 --- Global Algorithm --- p.47 / Chapter 3.4.1 --- Pheromone trails stage --- p.50 / Chapter 3.4.2 --- Multicast tree stage --- p.53 / Chapter 3.4.3 --- Routing table --- p.56 / Chapter 3.4.4 --- Messages Exchange and Mechanisms --- p.57 / Chapter 3.4.5 --- mapping --- p.58 / Chapter 3.4.6 --- Members join --- p.59 / Chapter 3.4.7 --- Members update --- p.59 / Chapter 3.4.8 --- Members leave --- p.61 / Chapter Chapter 4. --- Analysis of LSMRP --- p.63 / Chapter 4.1 --- Analysis of pheromone trail values --- p.63 / Chapter Chapter 5. --- Evaluation and Experimental Results --- p.80 / Chapter 5.1 --- System model --- p.80 / Chapter 5.2 --- Result --- p.84 / Chapter 5.2.1 --- Packets received --- p.84 / Chapter 5.2.2 --- Throughput --- p.86 / Chapter 5.2.3 --- Packet Loss --- p.98 / Chapter Chapter 6. --- Conclusion --- p.107 / Chapter 6.1 --- Future work/ open question --- p.107 / References --- p.109

Kong Chun Wai. / Thesis submitted in: July 2003. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 53-54). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Contents / acknowledgement --- p.I / Abstract --- p.II / 摘要 --- p.III / Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- Related Works --- p.4 / Chapter 2.1 --- Previous Work --- p.4 / Chapter 2.2 --- Comparison --- p.5 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- System Architecture --- p.7 / Chapter 3.1 --- Transmission Scheduling --- p.7 / Chapter 3.2 --- Admission Control --- p.9 / Chapter 3.3 --- Challenges in Supporting VBR-encoded Video --- p.10 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- Priority Scheduling --- p.12 / Chapter 4.1 --- Static Channel Priority (SCP) --- p.13 / Chapter 4.2 --- Dynamic Channel Priority (DCP) --- p.16 / Chapter Chapter 5 --- Turbo-Slice-and-Patch --- p.19 / Chapter 5.1 --- Video Pre-processing --- p.19 / Chapter 5.2 --- Bandwidth Allocation --- p.22 / Chapter 5.3 --- Three-Phase Patching --- p.23 / Chapter 5.4 --- Client Buffer Requirement --- p.27 / Chapter Chapter 6 --- Playback Continuity --- p.30 / Chapter Chapter 7 --- Performance Evaluation --- p.39 / Chapter 7.1 --- Average Latency --- p.40 / Chapter 7.2 --- Client Buffer Requirement --- p.43 / Chapter 7.3 --- Choice of Parameter Rcut --- p.44 / Chapter 7.4 --- Latency versus Arrival Rate --- p.46 / Chapter 7.5 --- Server Bandwidth Comparison --- p.48 / Chapter 7.6 --- Bandwidth Partitioning --- p.50 / Chapter Chapter 8 --- Conclusions --- p.52 / Bibliography --- p.53

Liu Wing Chun. / Thesis submitted in: July 2003. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 55-57). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Acknowledgement --- p.I / Abstract --- p.II / 摘要 --- p.III / Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- Related Works --- p.5 / Chapter 2.1 --- Fixed-Segment Fixed-Bandwidth Schemes --- p.6 / Chapter 2.2 --- Variable-Segment Fixed-Bandwidth Schemes --- p.7 / Chapter 2.3 --- Fixed-Segment Variable-Bandwidth Schemes --- p.8 / Chapter 2.4 --- Variable-Segment Variable-Bandwidth Schemes --- p.9 / Chapter 2.5 --- Performance Bounds of Periodic Broadcastings --- p.10 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- Consonant Broadcasting --- p.12 / Chapter 3.1 --- Type-I Channels --- p.14 / Chapter 3.2 --- Type-II Channels --- p.15 / Chapter 3.3 --- Client Buffer --- p.17 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- Performance Evaluation --- p.19 / Chapter 4.1 --- Startup Latency versus Network Bandwidth --- p.20 / Chapter 4.2 --- Startup Latency versus Client Access Bandwidth --- p.22 / Chapter 4.3 --- Client Buffer Requirement --- p.24 / Chapter Chapter 5 --- Grouped Consonant Broadcasting --- p.25 / Chapter 5.1 --- Bandwidth Partitioning and Reception Schedule --- p.26 / Chapter 5.2 --- Client Buffer Requirement --- p.28 / Chapter 5.3 --- Performance Tradeoffs --- p.30 / Chapter Chapter 6 --- Implementation and Benchmarking --- p.34 / Chapter 6.1 --- Practical Issues --- p.35 / Chapter 6.2 --- Experimental Results --- p.36 / Chapter Chapter 7 --- Dynamic Consonant Broadcasting --- p.39 / Chapter 7.1 --- Virtual Transmission Schedules --- p.40 / Chapter 7.2 --- Dynamic Broadcasting Schedules --- p.42 / Chapter 7.3 --- Performance Evaluation --- p.44 / Chapter Chapter 8 --- Variable-bit-rate Video Streaming --- p.46 / Chapter 8.1 --- Transmission Schedules --- p.46 / Chapter 8.2 --- Playback Continuity --- p.48 / Chapter 8.3 --- Performance Evaluation --- p.50 / Chapter Chapter 9 --- Conclusions --- p.53 / Bibliography --- p.55

Wong Ying Wai. / Thesis submitted in: December 2003. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 64-66). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Acknowledgement --- p.I / Abstract --- p.II / 摘要 --- p.III / Chapter Part I - --- Recursive Patching --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.2 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- Transition Patching --- p.5 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- Recursive Patching --- p.9 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- Stream Assignment --- p.12 / Chapter 4.1 --- The Equal-Split Stream Assignment Scheme --- p.12 / Chapter 4.2 --- A Hierarchical Equal-Split Stream Assignment Scheme --- p.14 / Chapter Chapter 5 --- Performance Evaluation --- p.16 / Chapter Chapter 6 --- Conclusion --- p.18 / Bibliography --- p.19 / Chapter Part II - --- Interactive Multicast Video Streaming --- p.21 / Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.22 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- Background --- p.25 / Chapter 2.1 --- Multicast Streaming Algorithms --- p.25 / Chapter 2.2 --- Interactive Playback Support --- p.30 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- Interactive Multicast Streaming --- p.34 / Chapter 3.1 --- Interactivity Model --- p.34 / Chapter 3.2 --- Request Scheduling --- p.36 / Chapter 3.3 --- Client Buffer Management --- p.37 / Chapter 3.4 --- Performance Impact --- p.39 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- Static Full Stream Scheduling --- p.45 / Chapter Chapter 5 --- Adaptive Full Stream Scheduling --- p.48 / Chapter Chapter 6 --- Performance Evaluation --- p.52 / Chapter 6.1 --- Optimization of the Full Stream Threshold --- p.52 / Chapter 6.2 --- Latencies Comparisons --- p.57 / Chapter 6.3 --- Effect of Client Buffer Constraint --- p.58 / Chapter 6.4 --- Just-in-Time Simulation --- p.60 / Chapter Chapter 7 --- Conclusion --- p.63 / Bibliography --- p.64

An important objective of tactical ad hoc networks is to deliver threat information from sensors to shooters efficiently and quickly. The information sent to a particular shooter should contain warnings about threats that are within some distance and/or within some time of the shooter's current location. In this thesis we develop a novel multicast model that distributes this form of threat information in a message efficient manner. In addition, information about allied force can also be distributed in a similar way. We present results from extensive simulations that demonstrate the efficiency of our protocol and discuss the scalability of this model to larger networks. / Graduation date: 2001