Split-Domain TCP-Friendly Protocol For MPEG-4 Adaptive Rate Video Streaming Over 3G Networks

The imminent inception of third-generation (3G) mobile communication networks offers an unprecedented opportunity for the development of video streaming applications through wireless Internet access. Different design challenges exist in implementing video streaming connections spanning both wired and wireless domains. A split-domain TCP-friendly streaming video transmission protocol is presented based on adaptive rate encoding in the MPEG-4 video format. Network simulations are conducted to demonstrate the benefits and viability of such a video streaming scheme over existing options. Further feature enhancements and refinements are necessary for the proposed protocol to achieve its full potential

An efficient multichannel wireless sensor networks MAC protocol based on IEEE 802.11 distributed co-ordinated function.

This research aimed to create new knowledge and pioneer a path in the area relating to future trends in the WSN, by resolving some of the issues at the MAC layer in Wireless Sensor Networks. This work introduced a Multi-channel Distributed Coordinated Function (MC-DCF) which takes advantage of multi-channel assignment. The backoff algorithm of the IEEE 802.11 distributed coordination function (DCF) was modified to invoke channel switching, based on threshold criteria in order to improve the overall throughput for wireless sensor networks. This work commenced by surveying different protocols: contention-based MAC protocols, transport layer protocols, cross-layered design and multichannel multi-radio assignments. A number of existing protocols were analysed, each attempting to resolve one or more problems faced by the current layers. The 802.15.4 performed very poorly at high data rate and at long range. Therefore 802.15.4 is not suitable for sensor multimedia or surveillance system with streaming data for future multichannel multi-radio systems. A survey on 802.11 DCF - which was designed mainly for wireless networks –supports and confirm that it has a power saving mechanism which is used to synchronise nodes. However it uses a random back-off mechanism that cannot provide deterministic upper bounds on channel access delay and as such cannot support real-time traffic. The weaknesses identified by surveying this protocol form the backbone of this thesis The overall aim for this thesis was to introduce multichannel with single radio as a new paradigm for IEEE 802.11 Distributed Coordinated Function (DCF) in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) that is used in a wide range of applications, from military application, environmental monitoring, medical care, smart buildings and other industry and to extend WSNs with multimedia capability which sense for instance sounds or motion, video sensor which capture video events of interest. Traditionally WSNs do not need high data rate and throughput, since events are normally captured periodically. With the paradigm shift in technology, multimedia streaming has become more demanding than data sensing applications as such the need for high data rate protocol for WSN which is an emerging technology in this area. The IEEE 802.11 can support data rates up to 54Mbps and 802.11 DCF was designed specifically for use in wireless networks. This thesis focused on designing an algorithm that applied multichannel to IEEE 802.11 DCF back-off algorithm to reduce the waiting time of a node and increase throughput when attempting to access the medium. Data collection in WSN tends to suffer from heavy congestion especially nodes nearer to the sink node. Therefore, this thesis proposes a contention based MAC protocol to address this problem from the inspiration of the 802.11 DCF backoff algorithm resulting from a comparison of IEEE 802.11 and IEEE 802.15.4 for Future Green Multichannel Multi-radio Wireless Sensor Networks

Scalable video streaming in wireless mesh networks.

Wireless mesh network provides efficient and reliable services for large scale communications. Video streaming in wireless networks enhances the services by delivering multimedia information to end users. However, because of the dynamic conditions of networks and variety of users, how to smoothly deliver the multimedia data to users without wasting precious network resources is still a challenge. This thesis addressed this challenge by investigating several key issues in video streaming in wireless mesh networks. Firstly, a video streaming system, Swan Video Streaming system (SVS), over wireless mesh networks was designed and developed. Secondly, a scalable video coding scheme was adopted in SVS. Video bit streams were split into two layers, base layer and enhancement layer. These two layers of video streams were packed into two multicast groups to allow users to get access them separately based on their processing ability and network conditions. This prevents the waste of network bandwidth by eliminating the delivery of videos to all the users regardless of their conditions. Thirdly, to improve the video robustness and reduce the overhead of the network for real-time video streaming, the important parameter messages of scale coded videos are transmitted in a reliable manner. SDP (Session Description Protocol) and RTCP (Real-time Transport Control Protocol) were improved to transmit the control messages at the beginning of video transmission and during video transmission stages, respectively. A new rearrangement method in RTCP of received packets was also proposed to improve the efficiency of algorithm and reduce network overhead. In addition, based on the feedback from video server and receivers, server and receivers can adjust their output bit rate and receiving rate according to different conditions of network to reduce the congestion. The above approaches have been evaluated in the developed SVS testbed. Tests results show the approaches are effective and feasible in real application scenarios

MAC-aware rate control for transport protocol in multihop wireless networks

International audienceTransport layer performance in IEEE 802.11 mul-tihop wireless networks (MHWNs) has been greatly challenged by wireless medium characteristics and multihop nature which are the sources of several types of packet loss including collision, random channel errors and route failures. Rate control transport protocols, the candidates for multimedia streaming applications suffer from high loss rates and end-to-end delay in MHWNs. A common research direction is that the rate control mechanisms at transport layer should be aware of MAC layer contention to keep the network load at a reasonable level. In this paper, we introduce a new MAC metric which reflects the contention and congestion levels more accurately. The metric is then used to improve the rate control mechanism of a rate-based transport protocol in MHWNs. The simulation results show that the adapted mechanism introduces significant performance improvement in MHWNs

Anticipatory Buffer Control and Quality Selection for Wireless Video Streaming

Video streaming is in high demand by mobile users, as recent studies indicate. In cellular networks, however, the unreliable wireless channel leads to two major problems. Poor channel states degrade video quality and interrupt the playback when a user cannot sufficiently fill its local playout buffer: buffer underruns occur. In contrast to that, good channel conditions cause common greedy buffering schemes to pile up very long buffers. Such over-buffering wastes expensive wireless channel capacity. To keep buffering in balance, we employ a novel approach. Assuming that we can predict data rates, we plan the quality and download time of the video segments ahead. This anticipatory scheduling avoids buffer underruns by downloading a large number of segments before a channel outage occurs, without wasting wireless capacity by excessive buffering. We formalize this approach as an optimization problem and derive practical heuristics for segmented video streaming protocols (e.g., HLS or MPEG DASH). Simulation results and testbed measurements show that our solution essentially eliminates playback interruptions without significantly decreasing video quality