Delivering Live Multimedia Streams to Mobile Hosts in a Wireless Internet with Multiple Content Aggregators

We consider the distribution of channels of live multimedia content (e.g., radio or TV broadcasts) via multiple content aggregators. In our work, an aggregator receives channels from content sources and redistributes them to a potentially large number of mobile hosts. Each aggregator can offer a channel in various configurations to cater for different wireless links, mobile hosts, and user preferences. As a result, a mobile host can generally choose from different configurations of the same channel offered by multiple alternative aggregators, which may be available through different interfaces (e.g., in a hotspot). A mobile host may need to handoff to another aggregator once it receives a channel. To prevent service disruption, a mobile host may for instance need to handoff to another aggregator when it leaves the subnets that make up its current aggregator�s service area (e.g., a hotspot or a cellular network).\ud In this paper, we present the design of a system that enables (multi-homed) mobile hosts to seamlessly handoff from one aggregator to another so that they can continue to receive a channel wherever they go. We concentrate on handoffs between aggregators as a result of a mobile host crossing a subnet boundary. As part of the system, we discuss a lightweight application-level protocol that enables mobile hosts to select the aggregator that provides the �best� configuration of a channel. The protocol comes into play when a mobile host begins to receive a channel and when it crosses a subnet boundary while receiving the channel. We show how our protocol can be implemented using the standard IETF session control and description protocols SIP and SDP. The implementation combines SIP and SDP�s offer-answer model in a novel way

Poor Man's Content Centric Networking (with TCP)

A number of different architectures have been proposed in support of data-oriented or information-centric networking. Besides a similar visions, they share the need for designing a new networking architecture. We present an incrementally deployable approach to content-centric networking based upon TCP. Content-aware senders cooperate with probabilistically operating routers for scalable content delivery (to unmodified clients), effectively supporting opportunistic caching for time-shifted access as well as de-facto synchronous multicast delivery. Our approach is application protocol-independent and provides support beyond HTTP caching or managed CDNs. We present our protocol design along with a Linux-based implementation and some initial feasibility checks

Multimedia delivery in the future internet

The term “Networked Media” implies that all kinds of media including text, image, 3D graphics, audio and video are produced, distributed, shared, managed and consumed on-line through various networks, like the Internet, Fiber, WiFi, WiMAX, GPRS, 3G and so on, in a convergent manner [1]. This white paper is the contribution of the Media Delivery Platform (MDP) cluster and aims to cover the Networked challenges of the Networked Media in the transition to the Future of the Internet. Internet has evolved and changed the way we work and live. End users of the Internet have been confronted with a bewildering range of media, services and applications and of technological innovations concerning media formats, wireless networks, terminal types and capabilities. And there is little evidence that the pace of this innovation is slowing. Today, over one billion of users access the Internet on regular basis, more than 100 million users have downloaded at least one (multi)media file and over 47 millions of them do so regularly, searching in more than 160 Exabytes1 of content. In the near future these numbers are expected to exponentially rise. It is expected that the Internet content will be increased by at least a factor of 6, rising to more than 990 Exabytes before 2012, fuelled mainly by the users themselves. Moreover, it is envisaged that in a near- to mid-term future, the Internet will provide the means to share and distribute (new) multimedia content and services with superior quality and striking flexibility, in a trusted and personalized way, improving citizens’ quality of life, working conditions, edutainment and safety. In this evolving environment, new transport protocols, new multimedia encoding schemes, cross-layer inthe network adaptation, machine-to-machine communication (including RFIDs), rich 3D content as well as community networks and the use of peer-to-peer (P2P) overlays are expected to generate new models of interaction and cooperation, and be able to support enhanced perceived quality-of-experience (PQoE) and innovative applications “on the move”, like virtual collaboration environments, personalised services/ media, virtual sport groups, on-line gaming, edutainment. In this context, the interaction with content combined with interactive/multimedia search capabilities across distributed repositories, opportunistic P2P networks and the dynamic adaptation to the characteristics of diverse mobile terminals are expected to contribute towards such a vision. Based on work that has taken place in a number of EC co-funded projects, in Framework Program 6 (FP6) and Framework Program 7 (FP7), a group of experts and technology visionaries have voluntarily contributed in this white paper aiming to describe the status, the state-of-the art, the challenges and the way ahead in the area of Content Aware media delivery platforms

Hybrid FLUTE/DASH video delivery over mobile wireless networks

This paper describes how FLUTE (File Delivery over Unidirectional Transport) and DASH (Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP) can be used to provide mobile video streaming services over broadcast wireless networks. FLUTE is a multicast protocol for multimedia file download. In this proposal, the protocol is adapted to provide video streaming services in crowded environments. Thus, video is delivered over a single connection to all viewers, reducing the traffic in the network. FLUTE incorporates an AL-FEC (Application Layered Forward Error Correction) mechanism in order to improve the reliability of the broadcast communication channel. For streaming applications, AL-FEC improves the relationship between the PSNR (Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio) of the received video and the bandwidth allocated to the broadcast connection. The AL-FEC hereby presented applies simple unequal error protection schemes to favor the download of key frames. Furthermore, the proposal is based on the same video segmentation mechanism as DASH and therefore, clients can connect to a DASH repository to repair errors in the segments. This paper shows that FLUTE and DASH can be seamlessly integrated into a hybrid broadcast/unicast streaming technology, providing flexibility to trade off PSNR and bandwidth depending on the conditions of the mobile network.This work was supported by the 11012 ICARE (Innovative Cloud Architecture for Real Entertainment) project within the ITEA 2 Call 6 Program of the European Union.Belda Ortega, R.; De Fez Lava, I.; Fraile Gil, F.; Arce Vila, P.; Guerri Cebollada, JC. (2014). Hybrid FLUTE/DASH video delivery over mobile wireless networks. Transactions on Emerging Telecommunications Technologies. 25(11):1070-1082. doi:10.1002/ett.2804S107010822511ETSI TS 126 346 v11.3.0. Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems (UMTS); LTE; Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Service (MBMS); Protocols and Codecs 2013Lecompte, D., & Gabin, F. (2012). Evolved multimedia broadcast/multicast service (eMBMS) in LTE-advanced: overview and Rel-11 enhancements. IEEE Communications Magazine, 50(11), 68-74. doi:10.1109/mcom.2012.6353684Stockhammer T Luby MG DASH in mobile networks and services. Presented at IEEE Visual Communications and Image Processing (VCIP) , 2012Seeling, P., & Reisslein, M. (2012). Video Transport Evaluation With H.264 Video Traces. IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, 14(4), 1142-1165. doi:10.1109/surv.2011.082911.00067Zhao, S., Tuninetti, D., Ansari, R., & Schonfeld, D. (2012). Multiple description coding over multiple correlated erasure channels. Transactions on Emerging Telecommunications Technologies, 23(6), 522-536. doi:10.1002/ett.2507Lin, C.-H., Wang, Y.-C., Shieh, C.-K., & Hwang, W.-S. (2012). An unequal error protection mechanism for video streaming over IEEE 802.11e WLANs. Computer Networks, 56(11), 2590-2599. doi:10.1016/j.comnet.2012.04.004Paila T Walsh R Luby M Roca V Lehtonen R FLUTE - file delivery over unidirectional transport. 2012Luby M Watson M Vicisano L Asynchronous layered coding (ALC) protocol instantiation. 2010Ameigeiras, P., Ramos-Munoz, J. J., Navarro-Ortiz, J., & Lopez-Soler, J. M. (2012). Analysis and modelling of YouTube traffic. Transactions on Emerging Telecommunications Technologies, 23(4), 360-377. doi:10.1002/ett.2546ISO/IEC 23009-1. Dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP (DASH) - Part 1: media presentation description and segment formats 2012De Fez, I., Fraile, F., Belda, R., & Guerri, J. C. (2012). Analysis and Evaluation of Adaptive LDPC AL-FEC Codes for Content Download Services. IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, 14(3), 641-650. doi:10.1109/tmm.2012.2190392Jenkac, H., Stockhammer, T., & Wen Xu. (2006). Asynchronous and reliable on-demand media broadcast. IEEE Network, 20(2), 14-20. doi:10.1109/mnet.2006.1607891Neumann C Roca V Scalable video streaming over ALC (SVSoA): a solution for the large scale multicast distribution of videos. Presented at 1st Int. Workshop on SMDI , 2004Lederer S Müller C Timmerer C Dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP dataset Proc. of the ACM Conference on Multimedia Systems (MMSys) 2012 89 94Blender Foundation webpage http://www.blender.org/blenderorg/Bai, H., & Atiquzzaman, M. (2003). Error modeling schemes for fading channels in wireless communications: A survey. IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, 5(2), 2-9. doi:10.1109/comst.2003.5341334Ohm, J.-R. (2004). Multimedia Communication Technology. Signals and Communication Technology. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-18750-

Resource Allocation Frameworks for Network-coded Layered Multimedia Multicast Services

The explosive growth of content-on-the-move, such as video streaming to mobile devices, has propelled research on multimedia broadcast and multicast schemes. Multi-rate transmission strategies have been proposed as a means of delivering layered services to users experiencing different downlink channel conditions. In this paper, we consider Point-to-Multipoint layered service delivery across a generic cellular system and improve it by applying different random linear network coding approaches. We derive packet error probability expressions and use them as performance metrics in the formulation of resource allocation frameworks. The aim of these frameworks is both the optimization of the transmission scheme and the minimization of the number of broadcast packets on each downlink channel, while offering service guarantees to a predetermined fraction of users. As a case of study, our proposed frameworks are then adapted to the LTE-A standard and the eMBMS technology. We focus on the delivery of a video service based on the H.264/SVC standard and demonstrate the advantages of layered network coding over multi-rate transmission. Furthermore, we establish that the choice of both the network coding technique and resource allocation method play a critical role on the network footprint, and the quality of each received video layer.Comment: IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications - Special Issue on Fundamental Approaches to Network Coding in Wireless Communication Systems. To appea

Design of a 5G Multimedia Broadcast Application Function Supporting Adaptive Error Recovery

The demand for mobile multimedia streaming services has been steadily growing in recent years. Mobile multimedia broadcasting addresses the shortage of radio resources but introduces a network error recovery problem. Retransmitting multimedia segments that are not correctly broadcast can cause service disruptions and increased service latency, affecting the quality of experience perceived by end users. With the advent of networking paradigms based on virtualization technologies, mobile networks have been enabled with more flexibility and agility to deploy innovative services that improve the utilization of available network resources. This paper discusses how mobile multimedia broadcast services can be designed to prevent service degradation by using the computing capabilities provided by multiaccess edge computing (MEC) platforms in the context of a 5G network architecture. An experimental platform has been developed to evaluate the feasibility of a MEC application to provide adaptive error recovery for multimedia broadcast services. The results of the experiments carried out show that the proposal provides a flexible mechanism that can be deployed at the network edge to lower the impact of transmission errors on latency and service disruptions.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figure

Enabling Layered Video Coding for IMS-Based IPTV Home Services

Nowadays IPTV services are gaining attention from both providers and end users. There is a large effort toward the integration of these services into emerging next-generation network architectures. In particular, one of the most relevant solutions is being proposed by ETSI-TISPAN and is based on the IP multimedia subsystem. This article focuses on introducing layered video coding into TISPAN IMS-based IPTV architecture, allowing cost-effective efficient solutions both for residential users and providers (e.g., flexible support of heterogeneous devices, live mosaics, adaptive video quality based on device and/or network capabilities). The advantages of using layered video coding in the TISPAN IPTV solution are analyzed and illustrated with a set of use cases. Furthermore, this solution has been integrated into a multimedia testbed in order to validate the presented proposal

Scalable distributed resource location

Thesis (S.B. and M.Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1998.Includes bibliographical references (p. 45).by Scott T. Smith.S.B.and M.Eng

Analysis domain model for shared virtual environments

The field of shared virtual environments, which also encompasses online games and social 3D environments, has a system landscape consisting of multiple solutions that share great functional overlap. However, there is little system interoperability between the different solutions. A shared virtual environment has an associated problem domain that is highly complex raising difficult challenges to the development process, starting with the architectural design of the underlying system. This paper has two main contributions. The first contribution is a broad domain analysis of shared virtual environments, which enables developers to have a better understanding of the whole rather than the part(s). The second contribution is a reference domain model for discussing and describing solutions - the Analysis Domain Model