Fuzzy Logic Control of Adaptive ARQ for Video Distribution over a Bluetooth Wireless Link

Bluetooth's default automatic repeat request (ARQ) scheme is not suited to video distribution resulting in missed display and decoded deadlines. Adaptive ARQ with active discard of expired packets from the send buffer is an alternative approach. However, even with the addition of cross-layer adaptation to picture-type packet importance, ARQ is not ideal in conditions of a deteriorating RF channel. The paper presents fuzzy logic control of ARQ, based on send buffer fullness and the head-of-line packet's deadline. The advantage of the fuzzy logic approach, which also scales its output according to picture type importance, is that the impact of delay can be directly introduced to the model, causing retransmissions to be reduced compared to all other schemes. The scheme considers both the delay constraints of the video stream and at the same time avoids send buffer overflow. Tests explore a variety of Bluetooth send buffer sizes and channel conditions. For adverse channel conditions and buffer size, the tests show an improvement of at least 4 dB in video quality compared to nonfuzzy schemes. The scheme can be applied to any codec with I-, P-, and (possibly) B-slices by inspection of packet headers without the need for encoder intervention.</jats:p

Power-Constrained Fuzzy Logic Control of Video Streaming over a Wireless Interconnect

Wireless communication of video, with Bluetooth as an example, represents a compromise between channel conditions, display and decode deadlines, and energy constraints. This paper proposes fuzzy logic control (FLC) of automatic repeat request (ARQ) as a way of reconciling these factors, with a 40% saving in power in the worst channel conditions from economizing on transmissions when channel errors occur. Whatever the channel conditions are, FLC is shown to outperform the default Bluetooth scheme and an alternative Bluetooth-adaptive ARQ scheme in terms of reduced packet loss and delay, as well as improved video quality

Experimental Evaluation of Large Scale WiFi Multicast Rate Control

WiFi multicast to very large groups has gained attention as a solution for multimedia delivery in crowded areas. Yet, most recently proposed schemes do not provide performance guarantees and none have been tested at scale. To address the issue of providing high multicast throughput with performance guarantees, we present the design and experimental evaluation of the Multicast Dynamic Rate Adaptation (MuDRA) algorithm. MuDRA balances fast adaptation to channel conditions and stability, which is essential for multimedia applications. MuDRA relies on feedback from some nodes collected via a light-weight protocol and dynamically adjusts the rate adaptation response time. Our experimental evaluation of MuDRA on the ORBIT testbed with over 150 nodes shows that MuDRA outperforms other schemes and supports high throughput multicast flows to hundreds of receivers while meeting quality requirements. MuDRA can support multiple high quality video streams, where 90% of the nodes report excellent or very good video quality

Adaptive buffer power save mechanism for mobile multimedia streaming

With the proliferation of wireless networks, the use of mobile devices to stream multimedia is growing in popularity. Although the devices are improving in that they are becoming smaller, more complex and capable of running more applications than ever before, there is one aspect of them that is lagging behind. Batteries have seen little development, even though they are one of the most important parts of the devices. Multimedia streaming puts extra pressure on batteries, causing them to discharge faster. This often means that streaming tasks can not be completed, resulting in significant user dissatisfaction. Consequently, effort is required to devise mechanisms to enable and increase in battery life while streaming multimedia. In this context, this thesis presents a novel algorithm to save power in mobile devices during the streaming of multimedia content. The proposed Adaptive-Buffer Power Save Mechanism (AB-PSM) controls how the data is sent over wireless networks, achieving significant power savings. There is little or no effect on the user and the algorithm is very simple to implement. The thesis describes tests which show the effectiveness of AB-PSM in comparison with the legacy power save mechanism present in IEEE 802.11. The thesis also presents a detailed overview of the IEEE 802.11 protocols and an in-depth literature review in the area of power saving during multimedia streaming. A novel analysis of how the battery of a mobile device is affected by multimedia streaming in its different stages is given. A total-power-save algorithm is then described as a possible extension to the Adaptive-Buffer Power Save Mechanism

Healthcare PANs: Personal Area Networks for trauma care and home care

The first hour following the trauma is of crucial importance in trauma care. The sooner treatment begins, the better the ultimate outcome for the patient. Generally the initial treatment is handled by paramedical personnel arriving at the site of the accident with an ambulance. There is evidence to show that if the expertise of the on-site paramedic team can be supported by immediate and continuous access to and communication with the expert medical team at the hospital, patient outcomes can be improved. After care also influences the ultimate recovery of the patient. After-treatment follow up often occurs in-hospital in spite of the fact that care at home can offer more advantages and can accelerate recovery. Based on emerging and future wireless communication technologies, in a previous paper [1] we presented an initial vision of two future healthcare settings, supported by applications which we call Virtual Trauma Team and Virtual Homecare Team. The Virtual Trauma Team application involves high quality wireless multimedia communications between ambulance paramedics and the hospital facilitated by paramedic Body Area Networks (BANs) [2] and an ambulance-based Vehicle Area Network (VAN). The VAN supports bi-directional streaming audio and video communication between the ambulance and the hospital even when moving at speed. The clinical motivation for Virtual Trauma Team is to increase survival rates in trauma care. The Virtual Homecare Team application enables homecare coordinated by home nursing services and supported by the patient's PAN which consists of a patient BAN in combination with an ambient intelligent home environment. The homecare PAN provides intelligent monitoring and support functions and the possibility to ad hoc network to the visiting health professionals’ own BANs as well as high quality multimedia communication links to remote members of the virtual team. The motivation for Virtual Homecare Team is to improve quality of life and independence for patients by supporting care at home; the economic motivation is to replace expensive hospital-based care with homecare by virtual teams using wireless technology to support the patient and the carers. In this paper we develop the vision further and focus in particular on the concepts of personal and body area networks

Beyond multimedia adaptation: Quality of experience-aware multi-sensorial media delivery

Multiple sensorial media (mulsemedia) combines multiple media elements which engage three or more of human senses, and as most other media content, requires support for delivery over the existing networks. This paper proposes an adaptive mulsemedia framework (ADAMS) for delivering scalable video and sensorial data to users. Unlike existing two-dimensional joint source-channel adaptation solutions for video streaming, the ADAMS framework includes three joint adaptation dimensions: video source, sensorial source, and network optimization. Using an MPEG-7 description scheme, ADAMS recommends the integration of multiple sensorial effects (i.e., haptic, olfaction, air motion, etc.) as metadata into multimedia streams. ADAMS design includes both coarse- and fine-grained adaptation modules on the server side: mulsemedia flow adaptation and packet priority scheduling. Feedback from subjective quality evaluation and network conditions is used to develop the two modules. Subjective evaluation investigated users' enjoyment levels when exposed to mulsemedia and multimedia sequences, respectively and to study users' preference levels of some sensorial effects in the context of mulsemedia sequences with video components at different quality levels. Results of the subjective study inform guidelines for an adaptive strategy that selects the optimal combination for video segments and sensorial data for a given bandwidth constraint and user requirement. User perceptual tests show how ADAMS outperforms existing multimedia delivery solutions in terms of both user perceived quality and user enjoyment during adaptive streaming of various mulsemedia content. In doing so, it highlights the case for tailored, adaptive mulsemedia delivery over traditional multimedia adaptive transport mechanisms

Effect of Video Streaming Space–Time Characteristics on Quality of Transmission over Wireless Telecommunication Networks

The spate in popularity of multimedia applications has led to the need for optimization of bandwidth allocation and usage in telecommunication networks. Modern telecommunication networks should by their definition be able to maintain the quality of different applications with different Quality of Service (QoS) levels. QoS requirements are generally dependent on the parameters of network and application layers of the OSI model. At the application layer QoS depends on factors such as resolution, bit rate, frame rate, video type, audio codecs, etc. At the network layer, distortions such as delay, jitter, packet loss, etc. are introduced. This paper presents simulation results of modeling video streaming over wireless communications networks. The differences in spatial and time characteristics of the different subject groups were taken into account. Analysis of the influence of bit error rate (BER) and bit rate for video quality is also presented. Simulation showed that different video subject groups affect the perceived quality differently when transmitted over networks. We show conclusively that in a transmission network with a small error probabilities (BER = 10-6, BER = 10-5), the minimum bit rate (128 kbps) guarantees an acceptable video quality, corresponding to MOS > 3 for all types of frames