Digital Fountain Approach to Reliable Distribution of Bulk Data
Title | Digital Fountain Approach to Reliable Distribution of Bulk Data |
Publication Type | Technical Report |
Year of Publication | 1998 |
Authors | Byers, J. W., Luby M., Mitzenmacher M., & Rege A. |
Other Numbers | 1127 |
Keywords | broadcast, bulk distribution, digital fountain, Erasure Codes, forward-error correcting (FEC), heterogeneous conditions, IP multicast, lossy channels, on demand download, reliable data distribution |
Abstract | The proliferation of applications that must reliably distribute bulk data to a large number of autonomous clients motivates the design of new multicast and broadcast protocols. We describe an ideal, fully scalable protocol for these applications that we call a digital fountain. A digital fountain allows any number of heterogeneous clients to acquire bulk data with optimal efficiency at times of their choosing. Moreover, no feedback channels are needed to ensure reliable delivery, even in the face of high loss rates. We develop a protocol that closely approximates a digital fountain using a new class of erasure codes that are orders of magnitude faster than standard erasure codes. We provide performance measurements that demonstrate the feasibility of our approach and discuss the design, implementation and performance of an experimental system. |
URL | http://www.icsi.berkeley.edu/ftp/global/pub/techreports/1998/tr-98-005.pdf |
Bibliographic Notes | ICSI Technical Report TR-98-005 |
Abbreviated Authors | J. Byers, M. Luby, M. Mitzenmacher, and A. Rege |
ICSI Research Group | Algorithms |
ICSI Publication Type | Technical Report |