A HTTP Streaming Video Server with Dynamic Advertisement Splicing

Abstract: The Internet today is experiencing a large growth in the amount of traffic due to the number of users consuming streaming media. For both the operator and content providers, streaming of media generates most of its revenue through advertisements inserted in the content. One common approach is to pre-stitched (i.e. insert) advertisements into the content. Another approach is dynamic advertisement insertion, which inserts advertisements at run-time while the media is being streamed. Dynamic advertisement insertion gives operators the flexibility to insert advertisements based on context, such as the user's geographic location or the user's preferences. Developing a technique to successfully insert advertisements dynamically into the streaming media has several challenges, such as maintaining synchronization of the media, choosing the appropriate transport format for media delivery, and finding a splicing boundary that starts with a key frame. The details of these challenges are detailed in this thesis. We carried out extensive research to find the best transport format for delivery of media and we studied prior work in an effort to find an appropriate streaming solution to perform dynamic advertisement insertion. Based upon this research and our study of prior work we identify the best transport format for delivery of media chunks, then propose, implement, and evaluate a technique for advertisement insertion.