Delay Estimation and Fast Iterative Scheduling Policies for LTE Uplink

We consider the allocation of spectral and power resources to the mobiles (i.e., user equipment (UE)) in a cell every subframe (1 ms) for the Long Term Evolution (LTE) orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) cellular network. To enable scheduling based on packet delays, we design a novel mechanism for inferring the packet delays approximately from the buffer status reports (BSR) transmitted by the UEs; the BSR reports only contain queue length information. We then consider a constrained optimization problem with a concave objective function - schedulers such as those based on utility maximization, maximum weight scheduling, and recent results on iterative scheduling for small queue/delay follow as special cases. In particular, the construction of the non-differentiable objective function based on packet delays is novel. We model constraints on bandwidth, peak transmit power at the UE, and the transmit power spectral density (PSD) at the UE due to fractional power control. When frequency diversity doesn't exist or is not exploited at a fast time-scale, we use subgradient analysis to construct an O(N log L) (per iteration with small number of iterations) algorithm to compute the optimal resource allocation for N users and L points of non-differentiability in the objective function. For a frequency diversity scheduler with M sub-bands, the corre- sponding complexity per iteration is essentially O(N(M^2+L^2)). Unlike previous iterative policies based on delay/queue, in our approach the complexity of scheduling can be reduced when the coherence bandwidth is larger. Through detailed system simulations (based on NGMN and 3GPP evaluation methodology) which model H-ARQ, finite resource grants per sub-frame, deployment, realistic traffic, power limitations, interference, and channel fading, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our schemes for LTE

Joint Data Scheduling and FEC Coding for Multihomed Wireless Video Delivery

This paper studies the problem of mobile video delivery in heterogenous wireless networks from a server to multihomed device. Most existing works only consider delivering video streaming on single path which bandwidth is limited causing ultimate video transmission rate. To solve this live video streaming transmission bottleneck problem, we propose a novel solution named Joint Data Allocation and Fountain Coding (JDAFC) method that contain below characters: (1) path selection, (2) dynamic data allocation, and (3) fountain coding. We evaluate the performance of JDAFC by simulation experiments using Exata and JVSM and compare it with some reference solutions. Experimental results represent that JDAFC outperforms the competing solutions in improving the video peak signal-to-noise ratio as well as reducing the end-to-end delay.Comment: 6 page

Joint Source-Channel Coding for Real-Time Video Transmission to Multi-homed Mobile Terminals

This study focuses on the mobile video delivery from a video server to a multi-homed client with a network of heterogeneous wireless. Joint Source-Channel Coding is effectively used to transmit video over bandwidth-limited, noisy wireless networks. But most existing JSCC methods only consider single path video transmission of the server and the client network. The problem will become more complicated when consider multi-path video transmission, because involving low-bandwidth, high-drop-rate or high-latency wireless network will only reduce the video quality. To solve this critical problem, we propose a novel Path Adaption JSCC (PA-JSCC) method that contain below characters: (1) path adaption, and (2) dynamic rate allocation. We use Exata to evaluate the performance of PA-JSCC and Experiment show that PA-JSCC has a good results in terms of PSNR (Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio).Comment: 5 pages. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1406.7054 by other author

Scalable Peer-to-Peer Streaming for Live Entertainment Content

We present a system for streaming live entertainment content over the Internet originating from a single source to a scalable number of consumers without resorting to centralized or provider-provisioned resources. The system creates a peer-to-peer overlay network, which attempts to optimize use of existing capacity to ensure quality of service, delivering low startup delay and lag in playout of the live content. There are three main aspects of our solution: first, a swarming mechanism that constructs an overlay topology for minimizing propagation delays from the source to end consumers; second, a distributed overlay anycast system that uses a location-based search algorithm for peers to quickly find the closest peers in a given stream; and finally, a novel incentive mechanism that encourages peers to donate capacity even when the user is not actively consuming content

A Novel Play-out Algorithm for HTTP Adaptive Streaming

In the paper, we proposed a novel algorithm dedicated to adaptive video streaming based on HTTP. The algorithm employs a hybrid play-out strategy which combines two popular approaches: an estimation of network bandwidth and a control of a player buffer. The proposed algorithm was implemented in two versions which differ in the method of handling fluctuations of network throughput. The proposed hybrid algorithm was evaluated against solutions which base their play-out strategy purely on bandwidth or buffer level assessment. The comparison was performed in an environment which emulated two systems: a Wi-Fi network with a single immobile node and HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) network with a mobile node. The evaluation shows that the hybrid approach in most cases achieves better results compared to its competitors, being able to stream the video more smoothly without unnecessary bit-rate switches. However, in certain network conditions, this score is traded for a worse throughput utilisation compared to other play-out strategies

Distortion-Aware Concurrent Multipath Transfer for Mobile Video Streaming in Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

The massive proliferation of wireless infrastructures with complementary characteristics prompts the bandwidth aggregation for Concurrent Multipath Transfer (CMT) over heterogeneous access networks. Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) is the standard transport-layer solution to enable CMT in multihomed communication environments. However, delivering high-quality streaming video with the existing CMT solutions still remains problematic due to the stringent QoS (Quality of Service) requirements and path asymmetry in heterogeneous wireless networks. In this paper, we advance the state of the art by introducing video distortion into the decision process of multipath data transfer. The proposed Distortion-Aware Concurrent Multipath Transfer (CMT-DA) solution includes three phases: 1) per-path status estimation and congestion control; 2) quality-optimal video flow rate allocation; 3) delay and loss controlled data retransmission. The term `flow rate allocation' indicates dynamically picking appropriate access networks and assigning the transmission rates. We analytically formulate the data distribution over multiple communication paths to minimize the end-to-end video distortion and derive the solution based on the utility maximization theory. The performance of the proposed CMT-DA is evaluated through extensive semi-physical emulations in Exata involving H.264 video streaming. Experimental results show that CMT-DA outperforms the reference schemes in terms of video PSNR (Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio), goodput, and inter-packet delay.Comment: This paper has already accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing on Jun, 23rd, 201

Delay-Aware Coded Caching for Mobile Users

In this work, we study the trade-off between the cache capacity and the user delay for a cooperative Small Base Station (SBS) coded caching system with mobile users. First, a delay-aware coded caching policy, which takes into account the popularity of the files and the maximum re-buffering delay to minimize the average rebuffering delay of a mobile user under a given cache capacity constraint is introduced. Subsequently, we address a scenario where some files are served by the macro-cell base station (MBS) when the cache capacity of the SBSs is not sufficient to store all the files in the library. For this scenario, we develop a coded caching policy that minimizes the average amount of data served by the MBS under an average re-buffering delay constraint

Temporal Reachability Graphs

While a natural fit for modeling and understanding mobile networks, time-varying graphs remain poorly understood. Indeed, many of the usual concepts of static graphs have no obvious counterpart in time-varying ones. In this paper, we introduce the notion of temporal reachability graphs. A (tau,delta)-reachability graph} is a time-varying directed graph derived from an existing connectivity graph. An edge exists from one node to another in the reachability graph at time t if there exists a journey (i.e., a spatiotemporal path) in the connectivity graph from the first node to the second, leaving after t, with a positive edge traversal time tau, and arriving within a maximum delay delta. We make three contributions. First, we develop the theoretical framework around temporal reachability graphs. Second, we harness our theoretical findings to propose an algorithm for their efficient computation. Finally, we demonstrate the analytic power of the temporal reachability graph concept by applying it to synthetic and real-life datasets. On top of defining clear upper bounds on communication capabilities, reachability graphs highlight asymmetric communication opportunities and offloading potential.Comment: In proceedings ACM Mobicom 201

Distributed Overlay Anycast Table using Space filling curves

In this paper we present the \emph{Distributed Overlay Anycast Table}, a structured overlay that implements application-layer anycast, allowing the discovery of the closest host that is a member of a given group. One application is in locality-aware peer-to-peer networks, where peers need to discover low-latency peers participating in the distribution of a particular file or stream. The DOAT makes use of network delay coordinates and a space filling curve to achieve locality-aware routing across the overlay, and Bloom filters to aggregate group identifiers. The solution is designed to optimise both accuracy and query time, which are essential for real-time applications. We simulated DOAT using both random and realistic node distributions. The results show that accuracy is high and query time is low.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

Error Resilient Multipath Video Delivery on Wireless Overlay Networks

Real time applications delivering multimedia data over wireless networks still pose many challenges due to high throughput and stringent delay requirements. Overlay networks with multipath transmission is the promising solution to address the above problems. But in wireless networks the maintenance of overlay networks induce additional overheads affecting the bulky and delay sensitive delivery of multimedia data. To minimize the overheads, this work introduces the Error Compensated Data Distribution Model (ECDD) that aids in reducing end to end delays and overheads arising from packet retransmissions. The ECDD adopts mTreebone algorithm to identify the unstable wireless nodes and construct overlay tree. The overlay tree is further split to support multipath transmissions. A sub packetization mechanism is adopted for multipath video data delivery in the ECDD. A forward error correction mechanism and sub-packet retransmission techniques adopted in ECDD enables to reduce the overhead and end to end delay. The simulation results presented in this paper prove that the ECDD model proposed achieves lower end to end delay and outperforms the existing models in place. Retransmission requests are minimized by about 52.27% and bit errors are reduced by about 23.93% than Sub-Packet based Multipath Load Distribution