RASP: Using OpenFlow to push overlay streams into the Underlay

Internet video streaming causes the second largest transfer volume and is the second fastest growing application class in Internet traffic analysis [3]. In this context, also the streaming of live content becomes increasingly relevant as more traditional broadcasters start delivering content over the Internet. Today, live video streaming services rely on IP-unicast delivery or closed IP-multicast systems inside single administrative domains. Approaches such as Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) are used to improve the unicast delivery of content. They usually end at the edge of the residential broadband access Internet Service Provider (ISP) networks that connect end users to the Internet. For live content delivery, network layer multicast would be desirable for ISPs as well as content providers to reduce the load due to parallel unicast connections for the same content. Because of the well-known drawbacks and limitations of IP-multicast [2], however, network layer multicast support is usually not available.