Video-on-demand equipment allocation

Network-based video-on-demand (VoD) deployments are today very limited in scope. The largest deployed libraries are just 0.7% of the global movie and TV-series catalog and peak utilization of VoD targets are 10--15% of broadcast TV peak viewing numbers. Recognizing that libraries and usage may grow, service providers are intensely interested in large-scale content delivery networks that provide content propagation, storage, streaming, and transport. We focus on one of the challenges of VoD network design: resource planning. We describe a method and design tool for the planning of large-scale VoD systems and address the resource allocation problem of determining the number and model of VoD servers to install in a, topology such that the deployment cost is minimized. Our general design tool provides important feedback and insights on VoD network design; we observed that the available equipment and the topology had a significant impact on the resulting design