9,616 research outputs found
A machine learning-based framework for preventing video freezes in HTTP adaptive streaming
HTTP Adaptive Streaming (HAS) represents the dominant technology to deliver videos over the Internet, due to its ability to adapt the video quality to the available bandwidth. Despite that, HAS clients can still suffer from freezes in the video playout, the main factor influencing users' Quality of Experience (QoE). To reduce video freezes, we propose a network-based framework, where a network controller prioritizes the delivery of particular video segments to prevent freezes at the clients. This framework is based on OpenFlow, a widely adopted protocol to implement the software-defined networking principle. The main element of the controller is a Machine Learning (ML) engine based on the random undersampling boosting algorithm and fuzzy logic, which can detect when a client is close to a freeze and drive the network prioritization to avoid it. This decision is based on measurements collected from the network nodes only, without any knowledge on the streamed videos or on the clients' characteristics. In this paper, we detail the design of the proposed ML-based framework and compare its performance with other benchmarking HAS solutions, under various video streaming scenarios. Particularly, we show through extensive experimentation that the proposed approach can reduce video freezes and freeze time with about 65% and 45% respectively, when compared to benchmarking algorithms. These results represent a major improvement for the QoE of the users watching multimedia content online
Streaming Video QoE Modeling and Prediction: A Long Short-Term Memory Approach
HTTP based adaptive video streaming has become a popular choice of streaming
due to the reliable transmission and the flexibility offered to adapt to
varying network conditions. However, due to rate adaptation in adaptive
streaming, the quality of the videos at the client keeps varying with time
depending on the end-to-end network conditions. Further, varying network
conditions can lead to the video client running out of playback content
resulting in rebuffering events. These factors affect the user satisfaction and
cause degradation of the user quality of experience (QoE). It is important to
quantify the perceptual QoE of the streaming video users and monitor the same
in a continuous manner so that the QoE degradation can be minimized. However,
the continuous evaluation of QoE is challenging as it is determined by complex
dynamic interactions among the QoE influencing factors. Towards this end, we
present LSTM-QoE, a recurrent neural network based QoE prediction model using a
Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network. The LSTM-QoE is a network of cascaded
LSTM blocks to capture the nonlinearities and the complex temporal dependencies
involved in the time varying QoE. Based on an evaluation over several publicly
available continuous QoE databases, we demonstrate that the LSTM-QoE has the
capability to model the QoE dynamics effectively. We compare the proposed model
with the state-of-the-art QoE prediction models and show that it provides
superior performance across these databases. Further, we discuss the state
space perspective for the LSTM-QoE and show the efficacy of the state space
modeling approaches for QoE prediction
Optimized Adaptive Streaming Representations based on System Dynamics
Adaptive streaming addresses the increasing and heterogenous demand of
multimedia content over the Internet by offering several encoded versions for
each video sequence. Each version (or representation) has a different
resolution and bit rate, aimed at a specific set of users, like TV or mobile
phone clients. While most existing works on adaptive streaming deal with
effective playout-control strategies at the client side, we take in this paper
a providers' perspective and propose solutions to improve user satisfaction by
optimizing the encoding rates of the video sequences. We formulate an integer
linear program that maximizes users' average satisfaction, taking into account
the network dynamics, the video content information, and the user population
characteristics. The solution of the optimization is a set of encoding
parameters that permit to create different streams to robustly satisfy users'
requests over time. We simulate multiple adaptive streaming sessions
characterized by realistic network connections models, where the proposed
solution outperforms commonly used vendor recommendations, in terms of user
satisfaction but also in terms of fairness and outage probability. The
simulation results further show that video content information as well as
network constraints and users' statistics play a crucial role in selecting
proper encoding parameters to provide fairness a mong users and to reduce
network resource usage. We finally propose a few practical guidelines that can
be used to choose the encoding parameters based on the user base
characteristics, the network capacity and the type of video content
Understanding user experience of mobile video: Framework, measurement, and optimization
Since users have become the focus of product/service design in last decade, the term User eXperience (UX) has been frequently used in the field of Human-Computer-Interaction (HCI). Research on UX facilitates a better understanding of the various aspects of the user’s interaction with the product or service. Mobile video, as a new and promising service and research field, has attracted great attention. Due to the significance of UX in the success of mobile video (Jordan, 2002), many researchers have centered on this area, examining users’ expectations, motivations, requirements, and usage context. As a result, many influencing factors have been explored (Buchinger, Kriglstein, Brandt & Hlavacs, 2011; Buchinger, Kriglstein & Hlavacs, 2009). However, a general framework for specific mobile video service is lacking for structuring such a great number of factors. To measure user experience of multimedia services such as mobile video, quality of experience (QoE) has recently become a prominent concept. In contrast to the traditionally used concept quality of service (QoS), QoE not only involves objectively measuring the delivered service but also takes into account user’s needs and desires when using the service, emphasizing the user’s overall acceptability on the service. Many QoE metrics are able to estimate the user perceived quality or acceptability of mobile video, but may be not enough accurate for the overall UX prediction due to the complexity of UX. Only a few frameworks of QoE have addressed more aspects of UX for mobile multimedia applications but need be transformed into practical measures. The challenge of optimizing UX remains adaptations to the resource constrains (e.g., network conditions, mobile device capabilities, and heterogeneous usage contexts) as well as meeting complicated user requirements (e.g., usage purposes and personal preferences). In this chapter, we investigate the existing important UX frameworks, compare their similarities and discuss some important features that fit in the mobile video service. Based on the previous research, we propose a simple UX framework for mobile video application by mapping a variety of influencing factors of UX upon a typical mobile video delivery system. Each component and its factors are explored with comprehensive literature reviews. The proposed framework may benefit in user-centred design of mobile video through taking a complete consideration of UX influences and in improvement of mobile videoservice quality by adjusting the values of certain factors to produce a positive user experience. It may also facilitate relative research in the way of locating important issues to study, clarifying research scopes, and setting up proper study procedures. We then review a great deal of research on UX measurement, including QoE metrics and QoE frameworks of mobile multimedia. Finally, we discuss how to achieve an optimal quality of user experience by focusing on the issues of various aspects of UX of mobile video. In the conclusion, we suggest some open issues for future study
- …