Error and Congestion Resilient Video Streaming over Broadband Wireless

In this paper, error resilience is achieved by adaptive, application-layer rateless channel coding, which is used to protect H.264/Advanced Video Coding (AVC) codec data-partitioned videos. A packetization strategy is an effective tool to control error rates and, in the paper, source-coded data partitioning serves to allocate smaller packets to more important compressed video data. The scheme for doing this is applied to real-time streaming across a broadband wireless link. The advantages of rateless code rate adaptivity are then demonstrated in the paper. Because the data partitions of a video slice are each assigned to different network packets, in congestion-prone wireless networks the increased number of packets per slice and their size disparity may increase the packet loss rate from buffer overflows. As a form of congestion resilience, this paper recommends packet-size dependent scheduling as a relatively simple way of alleviating the buffer-overflow problem arising from data-partitioned packets. The paper also contributes an analysis of data partitioning and packet sizes as a prelude to considering scheduling regimes. The combination of adaptive channel coding and prioritized packetization for error resilience with packet-size dependent packet scheduling results in a robust streaming scheme specialized for broadband wireless and real-time streaming applications such as video conferencing, video telephony, and telemedicine

Preserving data integrity of encoded medical images: the LAR compression framework

International audienceThrough the development of medical imaging systems and their integration into a complete information system, the need for advanced joint coding and network services becomes predominant. PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System) aims to acquire, store and compress, retrieve, present and distribute medical images. These systems have to be accessible via the Internet or wireless channels. Thus protection processes against transmission errors have to be added to get a powerful joint source-channel coding tool. Moreover, these sensitive data require confidentiality and privacy for both archiving and transmission purposes, leading to use cryptography and data embedding solutions. This chapter introduces data integrity protection and developed dedicated tools of content protection and secure bitstream transmission for medical encoded image purposes. In particular, the LAR image coding method is defined together with advanced securization services

MBMS—IP Multicast/Broadcast in 3G Networks

In this article, the Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Service (MBMS) as standardized in 3GPP is presented. With MBMS, multicast and broadcast capabilities are introduced into cellular networks. After an introduction into MBMS technology, MBMS radio bearer realizations are presented. Different MBMS bearer services like broadcast mode, enhanced broadcast mode and multicast mode are discussed. Streaming and download services over MBMS are presented and supported media codecs are listed. Service layer components as defined in Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) are introduced. For a Mobile TV use case capacity improvements achieved by MBMS are shown. Finally, evolution of MBMS as part of 3GPP standardization is presented

Quality-driven resource utilization methods for video streaming in wireless communication networks

This research is focused on the optimisation of resource utilisation in wireless mobile networks with the consideration of the users’ experienced quality of video streaming services. The study specifically considers the new generation of mobile communication networks, i.e. 4G-LTE, as the main research context. The background study provides an overview of the main properties of the relevant technologies investigated. These include video streaming protocols and networks, video service quality assessment methods, the infrastructure and related functionalities of LTE, and resource allocation algorithms in mobile communication systems. A mathematical model based on an objective and no-reference quality assessment metric for video streaming, namely Pause Intensity, is developed in this work for the evaluation of the continuity of streaming services. The analytical model is verified by extensive simulation and subjective testing on the joint impairment effects of the pause duration and pause frequency. Various types of the video contents and different levels of the impairments have been used in the process of validation tests. It has been shown that Pause Intensity is closely correlated with the subjective quality measurement in terms of the Mean Opinion Score and this correlation property is content independent. Based on the Pause Intensity metric, an optimised resource allocation approach is proposed for the given user requirements, communication system specifications and network performances. This approach concerns both system efficiency and fairness when establishing appropriate resource allocation algorithms, together with the consideration of the correlation between the required and allocated data rates per user. Pause Intensity plays a key role here, representing the required level of Quality of Experience (QoE) to ensure the best balance between system efficiency and fairness. The 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) system is used as the main application environment where the proposed research framework is examined and the results are compared with existing scheduling methods on the achievable fairness, efficiency and correlation. Adaptive video streaming technologies are also investigated and combined with our initiatives on determining the distribution of QoE performance across the network. The resulting scheduling process is controlled through the prioritization of users by considering their perceived quality for the services received. Meanwhile, a trade-off between fairness and efficiency is maintained through an online adjustment of the scheduler’s parameters. Furthermore, Pause Intensity is applied to act as a regulator to realise the rate adaptation function during the end user’s playback of the adaptive streaming service. The adaptive rates under various channel conditions and the shape of the QoE distribution amongst the users for different scheduling policies have been demonstrated in the context of LTE. Finally, the work for interworking between mobile communication system at the macro-cell level and the different deployments of WiFi technologies throughout the macro-cell is presented. A QoEdriven approach is proposed to analyse the offloading mechanism of the user’s data (e.g. video traffic) while the new rate distribution algorithm reshapes the network capacity across the macrocell. The scheduling policy derived is used to regulate the performance of the resource allocation across the fair-efficient spectrum. The associated offloading mechanism can properly control the number of the users within the coverages of the macro-cell base station and each of the WiFi access points involved. The performance of the non-seamless and user-controlled mobile traffic offloading (through the mobile WiFi devices) has been evaluated and compared with that of the standard operator-controlled WiFi hotspots

Convergence of packet communications over the evolved mobile networks; signal processing and protocol performance

In this thesis, the convergence of packet communications over the evolved mobile networks is studied. The Long Term Evolution (LTE) process is dominating the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) in order to bring technologies to the markets in the spirit of continuous innovation. The global markets of mobile information services are growing towards the Mobile Information Society. The thesis begins with the principles and theories of the multiple-access transmission schemes, transmitter receiver techniques and signal processing algorithms. Next, packet communications and Internet protocols are referred from the IETF standards with the characteristics of mobile communications in the focus. The mobile network architecture and protocols bind together the evolved packet system of Internet communications to the radio access network technologies. Specifics of the traffic models are shortly visited for their statistical meaning in the radio performance analysis. Radio resource management algorithms and protocols, also procedures, are covered addressing their relevance for the system performance. Throughout these Chapters, the commonalities and differentiators of the WCDMA, WCDMA/HSPA and LTE are covered. The main outcome of the thesis is the performance analysis of the LTE technology beginning from the early discoveries to the analysis of various system features and finally converging to an extensive system analysis campaign. The system performance is analysed with the characteristics of voice over the Internet and best effort traffic of the Internet. These traffic classes represent the majority of the mobile traffic in the converged packet networks, and yet they are simple enough for a fair and generic analysis of technologies. The thesis consists of publications and inventions created by the author that proposed several improvements to the 3G technologies towards the LTE. In the system analysis, the LTE showed by the factor of at least 2.5 to 3 times higher system measures compared to the WCDMA/HSPA reference. The WCDMA/HSPA networks are currently available with over 400 million subscribers and showing increasing growth, in the meanwhile the first LTE roll-outs are scheduled to begin in 2010. Sophisticated 3G LTE mobile devices are expected to appear fluently for all consumer segments in the following years

Final report on the evaluation of RRM/CRRM algorithms

Deliverable public del projecte EVERESTThis deliverable provides a definition and a complete evaluation of the RRM/CRRM algorithms selected in D11 and D15, and evolved and refined on an iterative process. The evaluation will be carried out by means of simulations using the simulators provided at D07, and D14.Preprin

LTE Optimization and Resource Management in Wireless Heterogeneous Networks

Mobile communication technology is evolving with a great pace. The development of the Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile system by 3GPP is one of the milestones in this direction. This work highlights a few areas in the LTE radio access network where the proposed innovative mechanisms can substantially improve overall LTE system performance. In order to further extend the capacity of LTE networks, an integration with the non-3GPP networks (e.g., WLAN, WiMAX etc.) is also proposed in this work. Moreover, it is discussed how bandwidth resources should be managed in such heterogeneous networks. The work has purposed a comprehensive system architecture as an overlay of the 3GPP defined SAE architecture, effective resource management mechanisms as well as a Linear Programming based analytical solution for the optimal network resource allocation problem. In addition, alternative computationally efficient heuristic based algorithms have also been designed to achieve near-optimal performance

The new enhancement of UMTS: HSDPA and HSUPA

During the last two decades, the world of the mobile communications grew a lot, as a consequence of the increasing necessity of people to communicate. Now, the mobile communications still need to improve for satisfies the user demands. The new enhancement of UMTS in concrete HSDPA and HSUPA is one of these improvements that the society needs. HSDPA and HSUPA which together are called HSPA, give to the users higher data rates in downlink and uplink. The higher data rates permit to the operators give more different types of services and at the same time with better quality. As a result, people can do several new applications with their mobile terminals like applications that before a computer and internet connection were required, now it is possible to do directly with the mobile terminal. This thesis consists in study these new technologies denominated HSDPA and HSUPA and thus know better the last tendencies in the mobile communications. Also it has a roughly idea about the future tendencies

Optimisation de la transmission de phonie et vidéophonie sur les réseaux à larges bandes PMR

Cet exposé analyse les perspectives large bande des réseaux PMR, à travers l'évaluation du candidat LTE, et la proposition d'une possible évolution du codage canal, la solution brevetée des codes turbo à protection non uniforme. Une première étude dans le chapitre 2 se concentre sur l'analyse multi-couche et l'identification des problèmes clé des communications de voix et de vidéo sur un réseau LTE professionnel. Les capacités voix et vidéo sont estimées pour les liens montant et descendant de la transmission LTE, et l'efficacité spectrale de la voix en lien descendant est comparée à celle de PMR et GSM. Ce chapitre souligne certains points clé de l'évolution de LTE. S'ils étaient pas résolus par la suite, LTE se verrait perdre de sa crédibilité en tant que candidat à l'évolution de la PMR. Une telle caractéristique clé des réseaux PMR est le codage canal à protection non uniforme, qui pourrait être adapté au système LTE pour une évolution aux contraintes de la sécurité publique. Le chapitre 3 introduit cette proposition d'évolution, qui a été brevetée: les turbo codes à protection non uniforme intégrée. Nous proposons une nouvelle approche pour le codage canal à protection non uniforme à travers les codes turbo progressives hiérarchiques. Les configurations parallèles et séries sont analysées. Les mécanismes de protection non uniformes sont intégrés dans la structure de l'encodeur même à travers l'insertion progressif et hiérarchique de nouvelles données de l'utilisateur. Le turbo décodage est modifié pour exploiter de façon optimale l'insertion progressive de données dans le processus d'encodage et estimer hiérarchiquement ces données. Les propriétés des structures parallèles et séries sont analysées à l'aide d'une analogie aux codes pilotes, ainsi qu'en regardant de plus près leurs caractéristiques de poids de codage. Le taux de transmission virtuel et les représentations des graphs factor fournissent une meilleure compréhension de ces propriétés. Les gains de codage sont évalués à l'aide de simulations numériques, en supposant des canaux de transmission radio statiques et dynamiques, et en utilisant des codes de référence. Enfin, dans le chapitre 4, l'idée breveté du code turbo parallal progressif et hiérarchique (PPHTC) est évaluée sur la plateforme LTE. Une description détaillée de l'architecture des bearers de LTE est donnée, et ses conséquences sont discutées. Le nouveau codage canal est inséré et évalué sur cette plateforme, et ses performances sont comparées avec des schémas de transmission typique à LTE. L'analyse de la qualité de la voix aide à conclure sur l'efficacité de la solution proposée dans un système de transmission réel. Pourtant, même si cette dernière donne les meilleurs résultats, d'avantage d'optimisations devraient être envisagées pour obtenir des gains améliorés et mieux exploiter le potentiel du codage proposé. L'exposé se conclut dans le chapitre 5 et une courte discussion présente les futures perspectives de rechercheThis dissertation analyzes the PMR broadband perspectives, through the evaluation of the preferred candidate, LTE, and the proposal of a possible channel coding evolution, the patented solution of unequal error protection embedded turbo codes. A first study in chapter 2 focuses on the multi-layer analysis and the identification of key issues for professional-like LTE for voice and video communications. The voice and video capacities are estimated for both downlink and uplink LTE transmissions, and the downlink LTE voice system efficiency is compared with that of the PMR and Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). This chapter helps highlighting some of the key points. If not resolved, the latter could lead to the LTE downfall as a candidate for the PMR evolution. One such key characteristic of PMR systems is the unequal error protection channel coding technique, which might be adapted to the LTE technology for its evolution to public safety requirements. Chapter 3 further introduces the proposed evolution patented ideas: the unequal error protection embedded turbo codes. We propose a new approach for the unequal error protection channel coding through the progressive hierarchical turbo codes. Both parallel and serial turbo configurations are closely studied. The unequal error protection mechanisms are embedded in the encoder s structure itself through the progressive and hierarchical insertion of new data. The turbo decoding is modified as to optimally exploit the progressive insertion of information in the encoding process and hierarchically estimate the corresponding data. Both parallel and serial configurations properties are analyzed using an analogy with a pilot code behavior, as well as a zoom on the weight error functions coefficients. The virtual code rate and factor graph interpretations also provide a better insight on the code properties. The code possible gains are highlighted through computer simulations in both static and dynamic transmission environments, by using carefully chosen benchmarks. Finally, in chapter 4, the patented idea of parallel progressive hierarchical turbo codes (PPHTC) is evaluated over the LTE platform. A detailed description is given of the voice transmission bearer architecture over LTE, and its consequences are discussed. The new channel code is inserted and evaluated over this platform and its performances compared with the existent LTE transmission schemes. The voice quality results help concluding on the efficiency of the proposed solution in a real transmission scenario. However, even though the newly presented solution gives the best results, further system optimizations should be envisaged for obtaining better gains and exploit the parallel progressive hierarchical turbo codes potential. The dissertation concludes in chapter 5 and a short discussion is given on future research perspectivesEVRY-INT (912282302) / SudocSudocFranceF

Adaptive network abstraction layer packetization for low bit rate H.264/AVC video transmission over wireless mobile networks under cross layer optimization

Master'sMASTER OF ENGINEERIN