18,208 research outputs found
MSPlayer: Multi-Source and multi-Path LeverAged YoutubER
Online video streaming through mobile devices has become extremely popular
nowadays. YouTube, for example, reported that the percentage of its traffic
streaming to mobile devices has soared from 6% to more than 40% over the past
two years. Moreover, people are constantly seeking to stream high quality video
for better experience while often suffering from limited bandwidth. Thanks to
the rapid deployment of content delivery networks (CDNs), popular videos are
now replicated at different sites, and users can stream videos from close-by
locations with low latencies. As mobile devices nowadays are equipped with
multiple wireless interfaces (e.g., WiFi and 3G/4G), aggregating bandwidth for
high definition video streaming has become possible.
We propose a client-based video streaming solution, MSPlayer, that takes
advantage of multiple video sources as well as multiple network paths through
different interfaces. MSPlayer reduces start-up latency and provides high
quality video streaming and robust data transport in mobile scenarios. We
experimentally demonstrate our solution on a testbed and through the YouTube
video service.Comment: accepted to ACM CoNEXT'1
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
- …