A Network-Aware Approach for Video and Metadata Streaming

• Published in: IEEE transactions on circuits and systems for video technology Vol. 17; no. 8; pp. 1028 - 1040
• Main Authors: Raghuveer, A., Kusmierek, E., Du, D.H.C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01-08-2007; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Adaptive systems; Algorithms; Applied sciences; Broadcasting. Videocommunications. Audiovisual; Electronics; Exact sciences and technology; Feedback; Imaging devices; Interconnected networks; IP networks; IP-TV; Logic; Metadata; metadata delivery; Network servers; Networks and services in france and abroad; Operation, maintenance, reliability; QoS; Quality of service; rate adaptation; Scheduling algorithm; Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices; Streaming media; Studies; Systems, networks and services of telecommunications; Telecommunications; Telecommunications and information theory; Teleprocessing networks. Isdn; Television; trace compression; underflow curve; Web and internet services; Web server; Lossy compression; Streaming; IP-TV; Flow rate regulation; Video signal; Metadata; Feedback regulation; Teletraffic; Scheduling; underflow curve; Buffer system; Algorithm; Information transmission; metadata delivery; Variable bit rate; Simulation; Television; QoS; Traffic management; rate adaptation; Traffic control; Internet; Service quality; trace compression
• ISSN: 1051-8215; 1558-2205
• DOI: 10.1109/TCSVT.2007.897462

Providing quality of service (QoS) for Internet-based video streaming applications requires the server and/or client to be network-aware and adaptive. We present a dynamic rate and quality adaptation algorithm where the server varies its sending rate (without varying the quality level) to adapt to the network and client conditions and only as a last resort, does quality adaptation. We place the adaptation logic at the client since it has better knowledge about both the demand (buffer conditions, variable bit-rate requirements) and supply (network conditions). Our approach is unique because the server's sending rate is calculated based on the client's varying demand (consumption rate) and the network status. Also, we do not model the network as a black-box but instead augment endpoint observations with a feedback from the network to represent its status more precisely. To make an informed adaptation decision, the client requires sizes of all frames in the variable bit rate video. But the overhead involved in sending this metadata is significant. So we propose a lossy compression technique to reduce the amount of control information and consequently the overhead. We also present a scheduling algorithm, dynamic scheduling algorithm for reduced trace delivery (DART), to deliver the compressed control information to the client. This algorithm can be used to deliver any form of metadata (like subtitles, alerts, etc.), especially in applications like IP-TV. Simulations show that the proposed techniques can significantly improve user perceived QoS when compared to other popular adaptation methods.