A new method to reduce the bandwidth of IPTV systems

Internet Protocol (IPTV) is becoming more and more widely used to provide video and audio services for a huge number of users, thanks to the IP network expansion, quality of content, and added value service for enhancing user experience comparing with traditional TV. The channel change time (CCT) during the channel surfing is a key factor impacting the quality of experience of end user especially when the user compares this delay with the traditional TV (cable TV or TV over satellite). A few years ago many researches have been done in this domain to mitigate the IPTV CCT and improve the user experience, one of the most deployed solution is the implementation of the fast channel change solution (FCC) in the network in order to unicast the needed stream during the CCT. In this paper we propose a new solution by enabling the communication between STBs to unicast the stream needed during the channel change period.