What is the single most important factor for a successful streaming video experience?
Since video streaming differs from most Internet services by requiring network bandwidth to be allocated to a continuous stream of bits, network bandwidth is the single most important factor in determining the quality of the viewing experience. If the bandwidth available to allocate to a video stream is not adequate, information in the video will be lost or delayed. This can result in an unacceptable viewing experience. The availability of network bandwidth is a function of the network’s capacity and the amount of traffic on the network. To use a highway analogy, a multi-lane freeway provides a lot of capacity but if there are too many cars using that highway at the same time, the driving experience may be less than optimal. Similarly, the viewing experience will depend on the amount of traffic on the network as well as the bandwidth of the pipes through which the traffic flows.
