A machine learning-based framework for preventing video freezes in HTTP adaptive streaming

HTTP Adaptive Streaming (HAS) represents the dominant technology to deliver videos over the Internet, due to its ability to adapt the video quality to the available bandwidth. Despite that, HAS clients can still suffer from freezes in the video playout, the main factor influencing users' Quality of Experience (QoE). To reduce video freezes, we propose a network-based framework, where a network controller prioritizes the delivery of particular video segments to prevent freezes at the clients. This framework is based on OpenFlow, a widely adopted protocol to implement the software-defined networking principle. The main element of the controller is a Machine Learning (ML) engine based on the random undersampling boosting algorithm and fuzzy logic, which can detect when a client is close to a freeze and drive the network prioritization to avoid it. This decision is based on measurements collected from the network nodes only, without any knowledge on the streamed videos or on the clients' characteristics. In this paper, we detail the design of the proposed ML-based framework and compare its performance with other benchmarking HAS solutions, under various video streaming scenarios. Particularly, we show through extensive experimentation that the proposed approach can reduce video freezes and freeze time with about 65% and 45% respectively, when compared to benchmarking algorithms. These results represent a major improvement for the QoE of the users watching multimedia content online

Dynamic QoS Solution for Enterprise Networks Using TSK Fuzzy Interpolation

The Quality of Services (QoS) is the measure of data transmission quality and service availability of a network, aiming to maintain the data, especially delay-sensitive data such as VoIP, to be transmitted over the network with the required quality. Major network device manufacturers have each developed their own smart dynamic QoS solutions, such as AutoQoS supported by Cisco, CoS (Class of Service) by Netgear devices, and QoS Maps on SROS (Secure Router Operating System) provided by HP, to maintain the service level of network traffic. Such smart QoS solutions usually only work for manufacture qualified devices and otherwise only a pre-defined static policy mapping can be applied. This paper presents a dynamic QoS solution based on the differentiated services (DiffServ) approach for enterprise networks, which is able to modify the priority level of a packet in real time by adjusting the value of Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP) in Internet Protocol (IP) header of network packets. This is implemented by a 0-order TSK fuzzy model with a sparse rule base which is developed by considering the current network delay, application desired priority level and user current priority group. DSCP values are dynamically generated by the TSK fuzzy model and updated in real time. The proposed system has been evaluated in a real network environment with promising results generated

Study of Fuzzy Logic-based Controller for Diff-Serv Bandwidth Broking

Combining both voice and data on the same network infrastructure results in need for an advanced network which is to be simple and scalable.  This resulted in new approach for Ethernet where Differentiated Service (Diff-Serv) is introduced. This is taken into consideration as well as QoS as a way of providing class of service to end users. Therefore, optimizing available bandwidth efficacy is one of the goals of this work which is centered on investigating the impact of crucial factors on performance of implementing a fuzzy logic controller. These factors can be external or internal and will be manipulated by Fuzzy Logic controller that will work as bandwidth broker to give each user his optimal Code Point (CP). In this work, the CP will not only consider packet loss rate as external factor  to check the congestion, but it will also consider the internal factors which are a combination of both service-level agreement (SLA) and the type of application being used. This CP will be marked in the transmitted packets, and then the router will check that and will treat it as agreed between user and administrator

QoS Design Consideration for Enterprise and Provider’s Network at Ingress and Egress Router for VoIP protocols

Compliance with the Service Level Agreement (SLA) metric is a major challenge in a Multiprotocol Label Switching Virtual Private Network (MPLS VPN) because mandatory models must be maintained on both sides of the MPLS VPN in order to achieve end-to-end service levels. The end-to-end service of an MPLS VPN can be degraded owing to various issues such as distributed denial of service (DDoS), and Random Early Detection (RED) that prevents congestion and differentiates between legitimate and illegitimate user traffic. In this study, we propose a centralized solution that uses a SLA Violation Detector (SLAVD) and intrusion detection to prevent SLA violation

Intelligent multimedia communication for enhanced medical e-collaboration in back pain treatment

This is the post-print version of the Article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2004 SAGE PublicationsRemote, multimedia-based, collaboration in back pain treatment is an option which only recently has come to the attention of clinicians and IT providers. The take-up of such applications will inevitably depend on their ability to produce an acceptable level of service over congested and unreliable public networks. However, although the problem of multimedia application-level performance is closely linked to both the user perspective of the experience as well as to the service provided by the underlying network, it is rarely studied from an integrated viewpoint. To alleviate this problem, we propose an intelligent mechanism that integrates user-related requirements with the more technical characterization of quality of service, obtaining a priority order of low-level quality of service parameters, which would ensure that user-centred quality of perception is maintained at an optimum level. We show how our framework is capable of suggesting appropriately tailored transmission protocols, by incorporating user requirements in the remote delivery of e-health solutions

Quality of service differentiation for multimedia delivery in wireless LANs

Delivering multimedia content to heterogeneous devices over a variable networking environment while maintaining high quality levels involves many technical challenges. The research reported in this thesis presents a solution for Quality of Service (QoS)-based service differentiation when delivering multimedia content over the wireless LANs. This thesis has three major contributions outlined below: 1. A Model-based Bandwidth Estimation algorithm (MBE), which estimates the available bandwidth based on novel TCP and UDP throughput models over IEEE 802.11 WLANs. MBE has been modelled, implemented, and tested through simulations and real life testing. In comparison with other bandwidth estimation techniques, MBE shows better performance in terms of error rate, overhead, and loss. 2. An intelligent Prioritized Adaptive Scheme (iPAS), which provides QoS service differentiation for multimedia delivery in wireless networks. iPAS assigns dynamic priorities to various streams and determines their bandwidth share by employing a probabilistic approach-which makes use of stereotypes. The total bandwidth to be allocated is estimated using MBE. The priority level of individual stream is variable and dependent on stream-related characteristics and delivery QoS parameters. iPAS can be deployed seamlessly over the original IEEE 802.11 protocols and can be included in the IEEE 802.21 framework in order to optimize the control signal communication. iPAS has been modelled, implemented, and evaluated via simulations. The results demonstrate that iPAS achieves better performance than the equal channel access mechanism over IEEE 802.11 DCF and a service differentiation scheme on top of IEEE 802.11e EDCA, in terms of fairness, throughput, delay, loss, and estimated PSNR. Additionally, both objective and subjective video quality assessment have been performed using a prototype system. 3. A QoS-based Downlink/Uplink Fairness Scheme, which uses the stereotypes-based structure to balance the QoS parameters (i.e. throughput, delay, and loss) between downlink and uplink VoIP traffic. The proposed scheme has been modelled and tested through simulations. The results show that, in comparison with other downlink/uplink fairness-oriented solutions, the proposed scheme performs better in terms of VoIP capacity and fairness level between downlink and uplink traffic