Enabling energy-awareness for internet video

Continuous improvements to the state of the art have made it easier to create, send and receive vast quantities of video over the Internet. Catalysed by these developments, video is now the largest, and fastest growing type of traffic on modern IP networks. In 2015, video was responsible for 70% of all traffic on the Internet, with an compound annual growth rate of 27%. On the other hand, concerns about the growing energy consumption of ICT in general, continue to rise. It is not surprising that there is a significant energy cost associated with these extensive video usage patterns. In this thesis, I examine the energy consumption of typical video configurations during decoding (playback) and encoding through empirical measurements on an experimental test-bed. I then make extrapolations to a global scale to show the opportunity for significant energy savings, achievable by simple modifications to these video configurations. Based on insights gained from these measurements, I propose a novel, energy-aware Quality of Experience (QoE) metric for digital video - the Energy - Video Quality Index (EnVI). Then, I present and evaluate vEQ-benchmark, a benchmarking and measurement tool for the purpose of generating EnVI scores. The tool enables fine-grained resource-usage analyses on video playback systems, and facilitates the creation of statistical models of power usage for these systems. I propose GreenDASH, an energy-aware extension of the existing Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP standard (DASH). GreenDASH incorporates relevant energy-usage and video quality information into the existing standard. It could enable dynamic, energy-aware adaptation for video in response to energy-usage and user ‘green’ preferences. I also evaluate the subjective perception of such energy-aware, adaptive video streaming by means of a user study featuring 36 participants. I examine how video may be adapted to save energy without a significant impact on the Quality of Experience of these users. In summary, this thesis highlights the significant opportunities for energy savings if Internet users gain an awareness about their energy usage, and presents a technical discussion how this can be achieved by straightforward extensions to the current state of the art

MADServer: An Architecture for Opportunistic Mobile Advanced Delivery

Rapid increases in cellular data traffic demand creative alternative delivery vectors for data. Despite the conceptual attractiveness of mobile data offloading, no concrete web server architectures integrate intelligent offloading in a production-ready and easily deployable manner without relying on vast infrastructural changes to carriers’ networks. Delay-tolerant networking technology offers the means to do just this. We introduce MADServer, a novel DTN-based architecture for mobile data offloading that splits web con- tent among multiple independent delivery vectors based on user and data context. It enables intelligent data offload- ing, caching, and querying solutions which can be incorporated in a manner that still satisfies user expectations for timely delivery. At the same time, it allows for users who have poor or expensive connections to the cellular network to leverage multi-hop opportunistic routing to send and receive data. We also present a preliminary implementation of MADServer and provide real-world performance evaluations

Digital inclusion - the vision, the challenges and the way forward

This paper considers the vision and aspiration of digital inclusion, and then examines the current reality. It looks beyond the rhetoric to provide an analysis of the status quo, a consideration of some facilitators and challenges to progress and some suggestions for moving forward with renewed energy and commitment. The far-reaching benefits of digital inclusion and the crucial role it plays in enabling full participation in our digital society are considered. At the heart of the vision of universal digital inclusion is the deceptively simple goal to ensure that everyone is able to access and experience the wide-ranging benefits and transformational opportunities and impacts it offers. The reality is a long way from the vision: inequality of access still exists despite many national campaigns and initiatives to reduce it. The benefits and beneficiaries of a digital society are not just the individual but all stakeholders in the wider society. Research evidence has shown that the critical success factors for successful digital participation are (i) appropriate design and (ii) readily available and on-going ICT (Information and Communication Technology) support in the community. Challenges and proven solutions are presented. The proposition of community hubs in local venues to provide user-centred ICT support and learning for older and disabled people is presented. While the challenges to achieve digital inclusion are very considerable, the knowledge of how to achieve it and the technologies which enable it already exist. Harnessing of political will is necessary to make digital inclusion a reality rather than a vision. With the cooperation and commitment of all stakeholders actualisation of the vision of a digitally inclusive society, while challenging, can be achieved and will yield opportunities and rewards that eclipse the cost of implementation