Simulation and experimental testbed for adaptive video streaming in ad hoc networks

[EN] This paper presents a performance evaluation of the scalable video streaming over mobile ad hoc networks. In particular, we focus on the rate-adaptive method for streaming scalable video (H.264/SVC). For effective adaptation a new cross-layer routing protocol is introduced. This protocol provides an efficient algorithm for available bandwidth estimation. With this information, the video source adjusts its bit rate during the video transmission according to the network state. We also propose a free simulation framework that supports evaluation studies for scalable video streaming. The simulation experiments performed in this study involve the transmission of SVC streams with Medium Grain Scalability (MGS) as well as temporal scalability over different network scenarios. The results reveal that the rate-adaptive strategy helps avoid or reduce the congestion in MANETs obtaining a better quality in the received videos. Additionally, an actual ad hoc network was implemented using embedded devices (Raspberry Pi) in order to assess the performance of the proposed adaptive transmission mechanism in a real environment. Additional experiments were carried out prior to the implementation with the aim of characterizing the wireless medium and packet loss profile. Finally, the proposed approach shows an important reduction in energy consumption, as the study revealed.This paper was performed with the support of the National Secretary of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation (SENESCYT)–Ecuador Government (scholarship 195-2012) and the Multimedia Communications Group (COMM) belong to the Institute of Telecommunications and Multimedia Applications (iTEAM)-Universitat Politècnica de València.Gonzalez-Martinez, SR.; Castellanos Hernández, WE.; Guzmán Castillo, PF.; Arce Vila, P.; Guerri Cebollada, JC. (2016). Simulation and experimental testbed for adaptive video streaming in ad hoc networks. Ad Hoc Networks. 52:89-105. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adhoc.2016.07.007S891055

Employing H.264 Coarse and Medium Grain Scalable Video to Optimize Video Playback over Passive Optical Networks

In this work, we propose the use of Coarse Grain Scalable (CGS) and Medium Grain Scalable (MGS) H.264/AVC video to optimize video playback on passive optical networks (PONs) by investigating network performance metrics such as data delay, video delay, and video delay jitter. Video playback is improved by sequentially dropping layers of scalable video. Dropping just a single CGS enhancement layer results in improvements of up to 57% for both data and video delay. However, video delay jitter benefits the most with an improvement ranging from 47% to 87%. Surprisingly, dropping subsequent CGS enhancement layers does not significantly improve the PONs performance. In order to remedy this effect, our focus switched to employing the H.264/AVC MGS video standard. Though video traffic delay is the primary object of optimization in this work, the proposed algorithm’s impacts on other network performance metrics such as data traffic delay and video traffic delay variance (jitter) are analyzed as well. Video playback is improved by employing an adaptive scalable video layer dropping algorithm which drops a progressively larger number of scalable video layers as network utilization increases as measured by the moving average of the video packet delay. The influence of the algorithm\u27s three parameters on its performance is investigated in detail, and the results of the optimized adaptive dropping algorithm are compared to baseline static dropping algorithm

Video Traffic Characteristics of Modern Encoding Standards: H.264/AVC with SVC and MVC Extensions and H.265/HEVC

abstract: Video encoding for multimedia services over communication networks has significantly advanced in recent years with the development of the highly efficient and flexible H.264/AVC video coding standard and its SVC extension. The emerging H.265/HEVC video coding standard as well as 3D video coding further advance video coding for multimedia communications. This paper first gives an overview of these new video coding standards and then examines their implications for multimedia communications by studying the traffic characteristics of long videos encoded with the new coding standards. We review video coding advances from MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 Part 2 to H.264/AVC and its SVC and MVC extensions as well as H.265/HEVC. For single-layer (nonscalable) video, we compare H.265/HEVC and H.264/AVC in terms of video traffic and statistical multiplexing characteristics. Our study is the first to examine the H.265/HEVC traffic variability for long videos. We also illustrate the video traffic characteristics and statistical multiplexing of scalable video encoded with the SVC extension of H.264/AVC as well as 3D video encoded with the MVC extension of H.264/AVC.View the article as published at https://www.hindawi.com/journals/tswj/2014/189481

Cross-layer H.264 scalable video downstream delivery over WLANs

Thanks to its in-network drop-based adaptation capabilities, H.264 Scalable Video Coding is perceived as an effective approach for delivering video over networks characterized by sudden large bandwidth fluctuations, such as Wireless LANs. Performance may be boosted by the adoption of application-aware/cross-layer schedulers devised to intelligently drop video data units (NALUs), so that i) decoding dependencies are preserved, and ii) the quality perceived by the end users is maximized. In this paper, we provide a theoretical formulation of a QoE utility-optimal cross-layer scheduling problem for H.264 SVC downlink delivery over WLANs. We show that, because of the unique characteristics of the WLAN MAC operation, this problem significantly differs from related approaches proposed for scheduled wireless technologies, especially when the WLAN carries background traffic in the uplink direction. From these theoretical insights, we derive, design, implement and experimentally assess a simple practical scheduling algorithm, whose performance is very close to the optimal solution

A QoS-aware routing protocol with adaptive feedback scheme for video streaming for mobile networks

One of the major challenges for the transmission of time-sensitive data like video over mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) is the deployment of an end-to-end QoS support mechanism. Therefore, several approaches and enhancements have been proposed concerning the routing protocols. In this paper we propose a new QoS routing protocol based on AODV (named AQA-AODV), which creates routes according to application QoS requirements. We have introduced link and path available bandwidth estimation mechanisms and an adaptive scheme that can provide feedback to the source node about the current network state, to allow the application to appropriately adjust the transmission rate. In the same way, we propose a route recovery approach into the AQA-AODV protocol, which provides a mechanism to detect the link failures in a route and re-establish the connections taking into account the conditions of QoS that have been established during the previous route discovery phase. The simulation results reveal performance improvements in terms of packet delay, number of link failures and connection setup latency while we make more efficient use of the available bandwidth than other protocols like AODV and QAODV. In terms of video transmission, the obtained results prove that the combined use of AQA-AODV and the scalable video coding provides an efficient platform for supporting rate-adaptive video streaming.Castellanos Hernández, WE.; Guerri Cebollada, JC.; Arce Vila, P. (2016). A QoS-aware routing protocol with adaptive feedback scheme for video streaming for mobile networks. Computer Communications. 77:10-25. doi:10.1016/j.comcom.2015.08.012S10257

SVCEval-RA: an evaluation framework for adaptive scalable video streaming

[EN] Multimedia content adaption strategies are becoming increasingly important for effective video streaming over the actual heterogeneous networks. Thus, evaluation frameworks for adaptive video play an important role in the designing and deploying process of adaptive multimedia streaming systems. This paper describes a novel simulation framework for rate-adaptive video transmission using the Scalable Video Coding standard (H.264/SVC). Our approach uses feedback information about the available bandwidth to allow the video source to select the most suitable combination of SVC layers for the transmission of a video sequence. The proposed solution has been integrated into the network simulator NS-2 in order to support realistic network simulations. To demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed solution we perform a simulation study where a video sequence was transmitted over a three network scenarios. The experimental results show that the Adaptive SVC scheme implemented in our framework provides an efficient alternative that helps to avoid an increase in the network congestion in resource-constrained networks. Improvements in video quality, in terms of PSNR (Peak Signal to Noise Ratio) and SSIM (Structural Similarity Index) are also obtained.Castellanos Hernández, WE.; Guerri Cebollada, JC.; Arce Vila, P. (2017). SVCEval-RA: an evaluation framework for adaptive scalable video streaming. Multimedia Tools and Applications. 76(1):437-461. doi:10.1007/s11042-015-3046-yS437461761Akhshabi S, Begen AC, Dovrolis C (2011) An experimental evaluation of rate-adaptation algorithms in adaptive streaming over HTTP. In: Proceedings of the second annual ACM conference on Multimedia systems. ACM, pp 157–168Alabdulkarim MN, Rikli N-E (2012) QoS Provisioning for H.264/SVC Streams over Ad-Hoc ZigBee Networks Using Cross-Layer Design. 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Scalable and network aware video coding for advanced communications over heterogeneous networks

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel UniversityThis work addresses the issues concerned with the provision of scalable video services over heterogeneous networks particularly with regards to dynamic adaptation and user’s acceptable quality of service. In order to provide and sustain an adaptive and network friendly multimedia communication service, a suite of techniques that achieved automatic scalability and adaptation are developed. These techniques are evaluated objectively and subjectively to assess the Quality of Service (QoS) provided to diverse users with variable constraints and dynamic resources. The research ensured the consideration of various levels of user acceptable QoS The techniques are further evaluated with view to establish their performance against state of the art scalable and non-scalable techniques. To further improve the adaptability of the designed techniques, several experiments and real time simulations are conducted with the aim of determining the optimum performance with various coding parameters and scenarios. The coding parameters and scenarios are evaluated and analyzed to determine their performance using various types of video content and formats. Several algorithms are developed to provide a dynamic adaptation of coding tools and parameters to specific video content type, format and bandwidth of transmission. Due to the nature of heterogeneous networks where channel conditions, terminals, users capabilities and preferences etc are unpredictably changing, hence limiting the adaptability of a specific technique adopted, a Dynamic Scalability Decision Making Algorithm (SADMA) is developed. The algorithm autonomously selects one of the designed scalability techniques basing its decision on the monitored and reported channel conditions. Experiments were conducted using a purpose-built heterogeneous network simulator and the network-aware selection of the scalability techniques is based on real time simulation results. A technique with a minimum delay, low bit-rate, low frame rate and low quality is adopted as a reactive measure to a predicted bad channel condition. If the use of the techniques is not favoured due to deteriorating channel conditions reported, a reduced layered stream or base layer is used. If the network status does not allow the use of the base layer, then the stream uses parameter identifiers with high efficiency to improve the scalability and adaptation of the video service. To further improve the flexibility and efficiency of the algorithm, a dynamic de-blocking filter and lambda value selection are analyzed and introduced in the algorithm. Various methods, interfaces and algorithms are defined for transcoding from one technique to another and extracting sub-streams when the network conditions do not allow for the transmission of the entire bit-stream

Scalable Video Coding Guidelines and Performance Evaluations for Adaptive Media Delivery of High Definition Content

International audienceScalability within media coding allows for content adaptation towards heterogeneous user contexts and enables in-network adaptation. However, there is no straightforward solution how to encode the content in a scalable way while maximizing rate-distortion performance. In this paper we provide encoding guidelines for scalable video coding based on a survey of media streaming industry solutions and a comprehensive performance evaluation using four state of the art scalable video codecs with a focus on high-definition content (1080p)