Error control in multicast video distribution

A digital video apparatus adapted for video-on-demand or digital video multicasting or digital video broadcasting, for processing continuous media data, retransmission data for implementing automatic repeat request, and redundancy data for implementing forward error correction, received through a network with quality-of-service, comprising:

• a receiver adapted to receive a continuous media data and redundancy data and to request a subset of lost data of continuous media data to receive a retransmission of the subset of the lost data of the continuous media data wherein not all the lost data is requested, the receiver being further adapted to perform erasure correction using the retransmitted subset of the lost data at least partially.

A digital video apparatus adapted for video-on-demand or digital video multicasting or digital video broadcasting, for processing continuous media data, retransmission data for implementing automatic repeat request, and redundancy data for implementing forward error correction, received through a network with quality-of-service, comprising:

• means for receiving continuous media data and redundancy data and to request a subset of lost data of continuous media data to receive a transmission of the subset of the lost data of the continuous media data wherein not all the lost data is requested;
• and
• means for performing erasure correction using the retransmitted subset of the lost data at least partially.

A method for delivering continuous video in a network, comprising:

• transmitting video packets containing continuous video, and redundancy data packets for implementing forward error correction to one or more receivers over the network to allow for continuous play of the continuous video by the one or more receivers;
• and
• retransmitting at least some of the video packets over the network to one or more of the receivers in response to a transmission request from the one or more of the receivers.