A New Method for Peer-to-Peer Assisted Fast Channel Zapping in IPTV Multicast System

In this paper, we propose a FCZ (Fast Channel Zapping) scheme exploiting P2P (Peer-to-Peer) communication in IPTV (Internet Protocol TeleVision) multicast system. In the proposed scheme, STB (Set-Top Box) devices cache its watching channel for P2P delivery, and the session management server collects the viewing information of STB devices managed by the server in real time. STB device trying to change watching channel receives a candidate STB list for P2P connection from the session management server. P2P-connected STB devices among the candidate STB list are selected by considering both their accessibility and available bandwidth. They deliver the minimum amount of caching data to the STB device attempting to change the channel prior to incoming multicast stream of the switching channel, which results in immediate playback. Compared with the FCZ scheme using a caching server, the proposed scheme can achieve faster channel switching without the additional infrastructure.