1,647 research outputs found
The QUIC Fix for Optimal Video Streaming
Within a few years of its introduction, QUIC has gained traction: a
significant chunk of traffic is now delivered over QUIC. The networking
community is actively engaged in debating the fairness, performance, and
applicability of QUIC for various use cases, but these debates are centered
around a narrow, common theme: how does the new reliable transport built on top
of UDP fare in different scenarios? Support for unreliable delivery in QUIC
remains largely unexplored.
The option for delivering content unreliably, as in a best-effort model,
deserves the QUIC designers' and community's attention. We propose extending
QUIC to support unreliable streams and present a simple approach for
implementation. We discuss a simple use case of video streaming---an
application that dominates the overall Internet traffic---that can leverage the
unreliable streams and potentially bring immense benefits to network operators
and content providers. To this end, we present a prototype implementation that,
by using both the reliable and unreliable streams in QUIC, outperforms both TCP
and QUIC in our evaluations.Comment: Published to ACM CoNEXT Workshop on the Evolution, Performance, and
Interoperability of QUIC (EPIQ
Streaming Video over HTTP with Consistent Quality
In conventional HTTP-based adaptive streaming (HAS), a video source is
encoded at multiple levels of constant bitrate representations, and a client
makes its representation selections according to the measured network
bandwidth. While greatly simplifying adaptation to the varying network
conditions, this strategy is not the best for optimizing the video quality
experienced by end users. Quality fluctuation can be reduced if the natural
variability of video content is taken into consideration. In this work, we
study the design of a client rate adaptation algorithm to yield consistent
video quality. We assume that clients have visibility into incoming video
within a finite horizon. We also take advantage of the client-side video
buffer, by using it as a breathing room for not only network bandwidth
variability, but also video bitrate variability. The challenge, however, lies
in how to balance these two variabilities to yield consistent video quality
without risking a buffer underrun. We propose an optimization solution that
uses an online algorithm to adapt the video bitrate step-by-step, while
applying dynamic programming at each step. We incorporate our solution into
PANDA -- a practical rate adaptation algorithm designed for HAS deployment at
scale.Comment: Refined version submitted to ACM Multimedia Systems Conference
(MMSys), 201
Quality of experience-centric management of adaptive video streaming services : status and challenges
Video streaming applications currently dominate Internet traffic. Particularly, HTTP Adaptive Streaming ( HAS) has emerged as the dominant standard for streaming videos over the best-effort Internet, thanks to its capability of matching the video quality to the available network resources. In HAS, the video client is equipped with a heuristic that dynamically decides the most suitable quality to stream the content, based on information such as the perceived network bandwidth or the video player buffer status. The goal of this heuristic is to optimize the quality as perceived by the user, the so-called Quality of Experience (QoE). Despite the many advantages brought by the adaptive streaming principle, optimizing users' QoE is far from trivial. Current heuristics are still suboptimal when sudden bandwidth drops occur, especially in wireless environments, thus leading to freezes in the video playout, the main factor influencing users' QoE. This issue is aggravated in case of live events, where the player buffer has to be kept as small as possible in order to reduce the playout delay between the user and the live signal. In light of the above, in recent years, several works have been proposed with the aim of extending the classical purely client-based structure of adaptive video streaming, in order to fully optimize users' QoE. In this article, a survey is presented of research works on this topic together with a classification based on where the optimization takes place. This classification goes beyond client-based heuristics to investigate the usage of server-and network-assisted architectures and of new application and transport layer protocols. In addition, we outline the major challenges currently arising in the field of multimedia delivery, which are going to be of extreme relevance in future years
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QOE-AWARE CONTENT DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS FOR ADAPTIVE BITRATE VIDEO STREAMING
A prodigious increase in video streaming content along with a simultaneous rise in end system capabilities has led to the proliferation of adaptive bit rate video streaming users in the Internet. Today, video streaming services range from Video-on-Demand services like traditional IP TV to more recent technologies such as immersive 3D experiences for live sports events. In order to meet the demands of these services, the multimedia and networking research community continues to strive toward efficiently delivering high quality content across the Internet while also trying to minimize content storage and delivery costs.
The introduction of flexible and adaptable technologies such as compute and storage clouds, Network Function Virtualization and Software Defined Networking continue to fuel content provider revenue. Today, content providers such as Google and Facebook build their own Software-Defined WANs to efficiently serve millions of users worldwide, while NetFlix partners with ISPs such as ATT (using OpenConnect) and cloud providers such as Amazon EC2 to serve their content and manage the delivery of several petabytes of high-quality video content for millions of subscribers at a global scale, respectively. In recent years, the unprecedented growth of video traffic in the Internet has seen several innovative systems such as Software Defined Networks and Information Centric Networks as well as inventive protocols such as QUIC, in an effort to keep up with the effects of this remarkable growth. While most existing systems continue to sub-optimally satisfy user requirements, future video streaming systems will require optimal management of storage and bandwidth resources that are several orders of magnitude larger than what is implemented today. Moreover, Quality-of-Experience metrics are becoming increasingly fine-grained in order to accurately quantify diverse content and consumer needs.
In this dissertation, we design and investigate innovative adaptive bit rate video streaming systems and analyze the implications of recent technologies on traditional streaming approaches using real-world experimentation methods. We provide useful insights for current and future content distribution network administrators to tackle Quality-of-Experience dilemmas and serve high quality video content to several users at a global scale. In order to show how Quality-of-Experience can benefit from core network architectural modifications, we design and evaluate prototypes for video streaming in Information Centric Networks and Software-Defined Networks. We also present a real-world, in-depth analysis of adaptive bitrate video streaming over protocols such as QUIC and MPQUIC to show how end-to-end protocol innovation can contribute to substantial Quality-of-Experience benefits for adaptive bit rate video streaming systems. We investigate a cross-layer approach based on QUIC and observe that application layer-based information can be successfully used to determine transport layer parameters for ABR streaming applications
Evaluation of unidirectional background push content download services for the delivery of television programs
Este trabajo de tesis presenta los servicios de descarga de contenido en modo push como un
mecanismo eficiente para el envío de contenido de televisión pre-producido sobre redes de
difusión. Hoy en día, los operadores de red dedican una cantidad considerable de recursos
de red a la entrega en vivo de contenido televisivo, tanto sobre redes de difusión como
sobre conexiones unidireccionales. Esta oferta de servicios responde únicamente a
requisitos comerciales: disponer de los contenidos televisivos en cualquier momento y
lugar. Sin embargo, desde un punto de vista estrictamente académico, el envío en vivo es
únicamente un requerimiento para el contenido en vivo, no para contenidos que ya han sido
producidos con anterioridad a su emisión. Más aún, la difusión es solo eficiente cuando el
contenido es suficientemente popular.
Los servicios bajo estudio en esta tesis utilizan capacidad residual en redes de difusión para
enviar contenido pre-producido para que se almacene en los equipos de usuario. La
propuesta se justifica únicamente por su eficiencia. Por un lado, genera valor de recursos de
red que no se aprovecharían de otra manera. Por otro lado, realiza la entrega de contenidos
pre-producidos y populares de la manera más eficiente: sobre servicios de descarga de
contenidos en difusión.
Los resultados incluyen modelos para la popularidad y la duración de contenidos, valiosos
para cualquier trabajo de investigación basados en la entrega de contenidos televisivos.
Además, la tesis evalúa la capacidad residual disponible en redes de difusión, por medio de
estudios empíricos. Después, estos resultados son utilizados en simulaciones que evalúan
las prestaciones de los servicios propuestos en escenarios diferentes y para aplicaciones
diferentes. La evaluación demuestra que este tipo de servicios son un recurso muy útil para
la entrega de contenido televisivo.This thesis dissertation presents background push Content Download Services as an
efficient mechanism to deliver pre-produced television content through existing broadcast
networks. Nowadays, network operators dedicate a considerable amount of network
resources to live streaming live, through both broadcast and unicast connections. This
service offering responds solely to commercial requirements: Content must be available
anytime and anywhere. However, from a strictly academic point of view, live streaming is
only a requirement for live content and not for pre-produced content. Moreover,
broadcasting is only efficient when the content is sufficiently popular.
The services under study in this thesis use residual capacity in broadcast networks to push
popular, pre-produced content to storage capacity in customer premises equipment. The
proposal responds only to efficiency requirements. On one hand, it creates value from
network resources otherwise unused. On the other hand, it delivers popular pre-produced
content in the most efficient way: through broadcast download services.
The results include models for the popularity and the duration of television content,
valuable for any research work dealing with file-based delivery of television content. Later,
the thesis evaluates the residual capacity available in broadcast networks through empirical
studies. These results are used in simulations to evaluate the performance of background
push content download services in different scenarios and for different applications. The
evaluation proves that this kind of services can become a great asset for the delivery of
television contentFraile Gil, F. (2013). Evaluation of unidirectional background push content download services for the delivery of television programs [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/31656TESI
Operating-system support for distributed multimedia
Multimedia applications place new demands upon processors, networks and operating systems. While some network designers, through ATM for example, have considered revolutionary approaches to supporting multimedia, the same cannot be said for operating systems designers. Most work is evolutionary in nature, attempting to identify additional features that can be added to existing systems to support multimedia. Here we describe the Pegasus project's attempt to build an integrated hardware and operating system environment from\ud
the ground up specifically targeted towards multimedia
Reducing Internet Latency : A Survey of Techniques and their Merit
Bob Briscoe, Anna Brunstrom, Andreas Petlund, David Hayes, David Ros, Ing-Jyh Tsang, Stein Gjessing, Gorry Fairhurst, Carsten Griwodz, Michael WelzlPeer reviewedPreprin
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