Otimização de distribuição de conteúdos multimédia utilizando software-defined networking

The general use of Internet access and user equipments, such as smartphones, tablets and personal computers, is creating a new wave of video content consumption. In the past two decades, the Television broadcasting industry went through several evolutions and changes, evolving from analog to digital distribution, standard definition to high definition TV-channels, form the IPTV method of distribution to the latest set of technologies in content distribution, OTT. The IPTV technology introduced features that changed the passive role of the client to an active one, revolutionizing the way users consume TV content. Thus, the clients’ habits started to shape the services offered, leading to an anywhere and anytime offer of video content. OTT video delivery is a reflection of those habits, meeting the users’ desire, introducing several benefits discussed in this work over the previous technologies. However, the OTT type of delivery poses several challenges in terms of scalability and threatens the Telecommunications Operators business model, because OTT companies use the Telcos infrastructure for free. Consequently, Telecommunications Operators must prepare their infrastructure for future demand while offering new services to stay competitive. This dissertation aims to contribute with insights on what infrastructure changes a Telecommunications Operator must perform with a proposed bandwidth forecasting model. The results obtained from the forecast model paved the way to the proposed video content delivery method, which aims to improve users’ perceived Quality-of-Experience while optimizing load balancing decisions. The overall results show an improvement of users’ experience using the proposed method.A generalização do acesso à Internet e equipamentos pessoais como smartphones, tablets e computadores pessoais, está a criar uma nova onda de consumo de conteúdos multimedia. Nas ultimas duas décadas, a indústria de transmissão de Televisão atravessou várias evoluções e alterações, evoluindo da distribuição analógica para a digital, de canais de Televisão de definição padrão para alta definição, do método de distribuição IPTV, até ao último conjunto de tecnologias na distribuição de conteúdos, OTT. A tecnologia IPTV introduziu novas funcionalidades que mudaram o papel passivo do cliente para um papel activo, revolucionando a forma como os utilizadores consumem conteúdos televisivos. Assim, os hábitos dos clientes começaram a moldar os serviços oferecidos, levando à oferta de consumo de conteúdos em qualquer lugar e em qualquer altura. A entrega de vídeo OTT é um reflexo destes hábitos, indo ao encontro dos desejos dos utilizadores, que introduz inúmeras vantagens sobre outras tecnologias discutidas neste trabalho. No entanto, a entrega de conteúdos OTT cria diversos problemas de escalabilidade e ameaça o modelo de negócio das Operadoras de Telecomunicações, porque os fornecedores de serviço OTT usam a infraestrutura das mesmas sem quaisquer custos. Consequentemente, os Operadores de Telecomunicações devem preparar a sua infraestrutura para o consumo futuro ao mesmo tempo que oferecem novos serviços para se manterem competitivos. Esta dissertação visa contribuir com conhecimento sobre quais alterações uma Operadora de Telecomunicações deve executar com o modelo de previsão de largura de banda proposto. Os resultados obtidos abriram caminho para o método de entrega de conteúdos multimedia proposto, que visa ao melhoramento da qualidade de experiência do utilizador ao mesmo tempo que se optimiza o processo de balanceamento de carga. No geral os testes confirmam uma melhoria na qualidade de experiência do utilizador usando o método proposto.Mestrado em Engenharia de Computadores e Telemátic

EXPERIMENTS ON VIDEO STREAMING OVER COMPUTER NETWORKS

Video traffic (including streaming video service) is dominating the Internet traffic today. Video can be streamed using a dedicated server, a content delivery network (CDN), or peer-to-peer (P2P) overlays across a network. Video can be transmitted in multiple formats and at different resolutions. Video is also being distributed to a variety of devices (fixed and mobile)

Feasibility study: Electronic media laboratory according to Industry standard

The goal of this Master's thesis was to find out the Metropolia media technology laboratory’s correlation to industrial electronic media production standards and environments. The laboratory environment for education and training should be following not only media technology curriculum, but also the requirements set for learning audio-visual technology, including the processes, technologies and practices involved in professional electronic production and publishing in Finland. Since the role of the laboratory is to perform as an effective learning environment, there are some understandable restrictions in technology and development, in financial and in management section that prevent it from reaching the industrial level. These limitations and differences between this environment and more sophisticated industrial model were studied in this thesis. Feasibility study, which is suitable for analyzing the technology, financial and administrative development all together, was selected as the research method. The study was intended to determine the achievable laboratory model of functional validation and also to demonstrate the proof of concept. Audiovisual production in the laboratory and the subsequent electronic digital publishing was created as an embedded model. The model takes into account the ongoing changes in the television environment and the traditional radio frequency transmission, which is now competing with other alternatives such as IP network distribution. Video editing as post production was analyzed in its current state and compared to a complete network-based-editing NAS and SAN model, which can also be implemented in cloud technologies for decentralized co-operation. This way the model was following the industry trends and future prospects. Research material was collected and acquired from written sources, industry fairs and conferences, resellers and agents as well as production companies and broadcasters. Practical implementation of electronic media publishing was simulated in the laboratory environment so that all the possible reception technologies were covered. Publishing was customized for compatibility with various devices. Noteworthy aspects in this publishing process were the post-processing, packetizing and distribution related quality management aspects their definition and management issues were also discussed in this thesis. The end result was a feasibility analysis and model, which defines the electronic publishing technology teaching bottlenecks regarding the equivalence of the technologies in laboratory environment.YAMK-insinöörityön tavoitteena oli selvittää Metropolian mediatekniikan laboratorion vastaavuus teollisessa elektronisen median tuotannossa noudatettaviin standardeihin. Laboratorion koulutusympäristönä tulee noudattaa paitsi mediatekniikan opetussuunnitelmassa audio-visuaaliselle tekniikalle oppimiselle asetettuja vaatimuksia, myös niitä prosesseja, käytäntöjä ja teknologioita joita ammattimainen elektroninen tuotanto ja julkaiseminen Suomessa toteuttaa. Oppimisympäristönä toimivan laboratorion kehittämiselle ja varustamiselle on ymmärrettävästi teknisiä, taloudellisia ja hallinnallisia rajoituksia, jotka estävät sen saavuttamasta teollista tasoa. Näiden rajojen ja kehittyneemmän teollisen mallin eroja tutkittiin. Tutkimusmenetelmäksi valittiin saavutettavuustutkimus (eng. feasebility study), joka menetelmänä soveltuu teknologian, taloudellisen tai hallinnollisen kehittämiseen analysointiin. Tutkimuksella pyrittiin määrittelemään saavutettavissa olevan laboratoriomallin toiminnallinen validointi ja toteutettavuuden osoitus (engl.proof of concept). Laboratorion audiovisuaalista tuotantoa ja sitä seuraavaa elektronista sekä digitaalista julkaisemista varten luotiin sulautettu malli. Mallissa huomioitiin televisioympäristössä meneillään oleva muutos, jossa perinteinen radiotaajuuslähettäminen on saanut vaihtoehdoksi IP- verkoilla suoritettavan jakelun. Videon editointi jälkituotantona analysointiin nykytilassa ja vertailtiin sitä täydellisen verkkoeditoinnin malleihin, jotka voivat myös toteuttaa pilviteknologioita hajautetussa tuotannollisessa yhteistyössä. Näin medialaboratorion mallinnuksessa huomioitiin toimialan ajan trendit ja tulevaisuuden näkymät. Tämä tutkimusaineisto hankittiin kirjallisten lähteiden lisäksi, alan messuilta ja konferensseista, maahantuojilta ja edustajilta sekä tuotanto- ja yleisradioyhtiöiltä. Elektronisen median julkaisemista simuloitiin laboratorioympäristössä niin, että kaikki mahdolliset vastaanottotekniikat oli otettu huomioon. Julkaiseminen räätälöitiin myös soveltuvaksi eri päätelaitteille. Julkaisemisessa huomionarvoisiksi asioiksi nousivat audiovisuaalisen sisällön jälkiprosessointiin, paketointiin ja lähettämiseen liittyvät tekniset laadunhallinnan aspektit, esimerkiksi eri videonpakkausalgoritmien soveltuvuus videosisällön jakelussa, julkaisemisen automatisoinnin mahdollistaminen ja eri julkaisualustojen tutkiminen ja määrittely Lopputuloksena saatiin aikaan soveltuvuusanalyysi ja mallinnus, jossa määriteltiin elektronisen julkaisemisen teknisen opetuksen pullonkaulat teolliseen vastaavuuteen nähden. Suurimmaksi kompastuskiveksi voidaan mainita jakelujärjestelmän operoinnin hankaluus sekä verkotetun editointijärjestelmän määrittelyn haasteellisuus

EXPERIMENTS ON VIDEO STREAMING OVER COMPUTER NETWORKS

Video traffic (including streaming video service) is dominating the Internet traffic today. Video can be streamed using a dedicated server, a content delivery network (CDN), or peer-to-peer (P2P) overlays across a network. Video can be transmitted in multiple formats and at different resolutions. Video is also being distributed to a variety of devices (fixed and mobile)

Cloud media video encoding:review and challenges

In recent years, Internet traffic patterns have been changing. Most of the traffic demand by end users is multimedia, in particular, video streaming accounts for over 53%. This demand has led to improved network infrastructures and computing architectures to meet the challenges of delivering these multimedia services while maintaining an adequate quality of experience. Focusing on the preparation and adequacy of multimedia content for broadcasting, Cloud and Edge Computing infrastructures have been and will be crucial to offer high and ultra-high definition multimedia content in live, real-time, or video-on-demand scenarios. For these reasons, this review paper presents a detailed study of research papers related to encoding and transcoding techniques in cloud computing environments. It begins by discussing the evolution of streaming and the importance of the encoding process, with a focus on the latest streaming methods and codecs. Then, it examines the role of cloud systems in multimedia environments and provides details on the cloud infrastructure for media scenarios. After doing a systematic literature review, we have been able to find 49 valid papers that meet the requirements specified in the research questions. Each paper has been analyzed and classified according to several criteria, besides to inspect their relevance. To conclude this review, we have identified and elaborated on several challenges and open research issues associated with the development of video codecs optimized for diverse factors within both cloud and edge architectures. Additionally, we have discussed emerging challenges in designing new cloud/edge architectures aimed at more efficient delivery of media traffic. This involves investigating ways to improve the overall performance, reliability, and resource utilization of architectures that support the transmission of multimedia content over both cloud and edge computing environments ensuring a good quality of experience for the final user