A Network Algorithm for 3D/2D IPTV Distribution using WiMAX and WLAN Technologies

The final publication is available at link.springer.comThe appearance of new broadband wireless technologies jointly with the ability to offer enough quality of service to provide IPTV over them, have made possible the mobility and ubiquity of any type of device to access the IPTV network. The minimum bandwidth required in the access network to provide appropriate quality 3D/2D IPTV services jointly with the need to guarantee the Quality of Experience (QoE) to the end user, makes the need of algorithms that should be able to combine different wireless standards and technologies. In this paper, we propose a network algorithm that manages the IPTV access network and decides which type of wireless technology the customers should connect with when using multiband devices, depending on the requirements of the IPTV client device, the available networks, and some network parameters (such as the number of loss packets and packet delay), to provide the maximum QoE to the customer. The measurements taken in a real environment from several wireless networks allow us to know the performance of the proposed system when it selects each one of them. The measurements taken from a test bench demonstrate the success of our system.This work has been partially supported by the Polytechnic University of Valencia, though the PAID-15-10 multidisciplinary projects, by the Instituto de Telecomunicacoes, Next Generation Networks and Applications Group (NetGNA), Portugal, and by National Funding from the FCT - Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia through the PEst-OE/EEI/LA0008/2011 Project.Lloret, J.; Cánovas Solbes, A.; Rodrigues, JJPC.; Lin, K. (2013). A Network Algorithm for 3D/2D IPTV Distribution using WiMAX and WLAN Technologies. Multimedia Tools and Applications. 67(1):7-30. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-011-0929-4S730671Abukharis S, MacKenzie R, Farrell TO (2009) Improving QoS of Video Transmitted Over 802.11 WLANs Using Frame Aggregation. London Communications Symposium.. London, United Kingdom, September 03–04Alejandro Canovas, Fernando Boronat, Carlos Turro and Jaime Lloret (2009) Multicast TV over WLAN in a University Campus Network, The Fifth International Conference on Networking and Services (ICNS 2009), Valencia (Spain), April 20–25Alfonsi B (2005) “I want my IPTV: Internet Protocol television predicted a winner,” IEEE Distributed Systems Online, vol.6, no.2Birlik F, Gurbuz Ö, Ercetin O (2009) IPTV Home Networking via 802.11 Wireless Mesh Networks: An Implementation Experience. IEEE Trans. on Consumer Electronics, Vol. 55, No. 3Cai LX, Ling X, Shen X, Mark JW, Cai L (2009) Supporting voice and video applications over IEEE 802.11n WLANs. Wireless Networks 15:443–454Cunningham G, Perry P, Murphy J, Murphy L (2009) Seamless Handover of IPTV Streams in a Wireless LAN Network. Transactions on Broadcasting, IEEE 55(4):796–801Dai Z, Fracchia R, Gosteau J, Pellati P, Vivier G (2008) Vertical Handover Criteria and Algorithm in IEEE802.11 and 802.16 Hybrid Networks, IEEE International Conference on Communications, 2008. ICC’08. Beijing, China, 19–23Gidlund M, Ekling J (2008) VoIP and IPTV distribution over wireless mesh networks in indoor environment. IEEE Trans Consum Electron 54(4):1665–1671Hellberg C, Greene D, Boyes T (2007) Broadband network architectures: designing and deploying triple-play services. Prentice Hall PTR Upper Saddle River, NJ, USAHsu H-T, Kuo F-Y, Lu P-H (2010) Design of WiFi/WiMAX dual-band E-shaped patch antennas through cavity model approach. Microw Opt Technol Lett 52(2):471–474IEEE 802.11 Working Group, At http://www.ieee802.org/11/index.shtml [last access: July 2011]IEEE Std 802.11™-2007 - IEEE Standard for Information Technology— Telecommunications and information exchange between systems— Local and metropolitan area networks—Specific requirements Part 11: Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) SpecificationsIEEE Std 802.16™-2009, IEEE Standard for Local and metropolitan area networks, Part 16: Air Interface for Broadband Wireless Access Systems. At http://standards.ieee.org/getieee802/download/802.16-2009.pdf [last access: July 2011]inCode Telecom group Inc. (2006) The Quad-Play—the First Wave of the Converged Services Evolution. White paper, FebruaryIPTV Focus Group, Available at http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/IPTV/ [last access: July 2011]Jindal S, Jindal A, Gupta N (2005) Grouping WI-MAX, 3 G and WI-FI for wireless broadband, The First IEEE and IFIP International Conference in Central Asia on Internet 2005, September 26–29, Bishkek, KyrgyzstanJin-Yu Zhang, Man-Gui Liang (2008) “IPTV QoS Implement Mechanism in WLAN,” Int. Conference on Intelligent Information Hiding and Multimedia Signal Processing. pp 117-120, 15–17Karen Fernanda Medina Velez and Ivonne Alexandra Revelo Arias (2006) Diseño y planificación de una red inalámbrica basada en los estandares IEEE 802.16 (WIMAX) y 802.11 (WIFI) para proveer de internet de banda ancha a poblaciones de las provincias de Loja y Zamora Chinchipe, Tesis Electrónica y Telecomunicaciones (IET), Escuela Politécnica Nacional, Quito, EcuadorKnightson K, Morita N, Towle T (2005) NGN architecture: generic principles, functional architecture, and implementation. IEEE Commun Mag 43(10):49–56Lai C, Min Chen (2011) Playback-Rate Based Streaming Services for Maximum Network Capacity in IP Multimedia Subsystem, IEEE System Journal, doi: 10.1109/JSYST.2011.2165190Lee K-H, Trong ST, Lee B-G, Kim Y-T (2008) QoS-Guaranteed IPTV Service Provisioning in Home Network with IEEE 802.11e Wireless LAN,” IEEE Network Operations and Management Symposium. pp 71-76Marcelo Atenas, Sandra Sendra, Miguel Garcia, Jaime Lloret (2010) IPTV Performance in IEEE 802.11n WLANs, IEEE Global Communications Conference (IEEE Globecomm 2010), Miami (USA), December 6–10Miguel Garcia, Jaime Lloret, Miguel Edo, Raquel Lacuesta (2009) IPTV Distribution Network Access System Using WiMAX and WLAN Technologies, International Symposium on High Performance Distributed Computing (HPDC 2009), Munich (Germany), June 11–13Park AH, Choi JK (2007) “QoS guaranteed IPTV service over Wireless Broadband network”, The 9th Int. Conference on Advanced Communication Technology 2:1077–1080Retnasothie FE, Ozdemir MK, YÄucek T, Zhang J, Celebi H, Muththaiah R (2006) “Wireless IPTV over WiMAX: Challenges and applications”. IEEE Wamicon, Clearwater, FLSchollmeier G, Winkler C (2004) Providing sustainable QoS in next-generation networks. IEEE Communication Magazine 42(6):102–107She J, Hou F, Ho P-H, Xie L-L (2007) IPTV over WiMAX: Key Success Factors, Challenges, and Solutions [Advances in Mobile Multimedia]. IEEE Commun Mag 45(8):87–93Shihab E, Cai L, Wan F, Gulliver TA, Tin N (2008) Wireless mesh networks for in-home IPTV distribution. IEEE Netw 22(1):52–57Shihab E, Wan F, Cai L, Gulliver A, Tin N (2007) “Performance Analysis of IPTV in Home Networks”, IEEE Global Telecommunications (GLOBECOM 2007), Washington, DC, pp 26–30Singh H, ChangYeul Kvvon, Seong Soo Kim, Chiu Ngo (2008) “IPTV over WirelessLAN: Promises and Challenges,” 5th IEEE Consumer Communications and Networking Conference, pp.626-631Super AG technologies, At http://www.digicom.it/italiano/supporto/WhitePaper/Wireless108M_whitepaper.pdf [last access: July 2011]VLC Media Player, Available at www.videolan.org [last access: July 2011]Wen-Hsing Kuo, Tehuang Liu, Wanjiun Liao (2007) Utility-Based Resource Allocation for Layer-Encoded IPTV Multicast in IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX) Wireless Networks. IEEE International Conference on Communications 2007 (ICC 2007), 24–28. Glasgow, Scotland pp 1754-1759Wireshark Network Protocol Analyzer, Available at www.wireshark.org [last access: July 2011]Xiao Y, Du X, Zhang J, Hu F, Guizani S (2007) Internet protocol television (IPTV): the killer application for the next-generation internet. IEEE Commun Mag 45(11):126–134Yarali A, Rahman S, Mbula B (2008) WIMAX: The innovate Broadband Wireless access technology. Journal of Communications 3(2):53–6

Optimized IP-CANs to support best charged IMS scenarios

conference paper Published in Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications, 2009 IEEE 20th International Symposium by IEEE.The pricing and charging mechanisms used in Next Generation Network (NGN) deployments will influence the profitability of network operators. NGNs present an opportunity for the success of service delivery platforms designed for IP multimedia communications, like the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS). Moreover, they present a platform for the delivery of a multitude of applications and services to users with different expectations and budgets. Although usage-based charging schemes are more meaningful, some recent successful Internet-based applications and services have attracted widespread usage due to enforcement of flat-rate pricing. The choice of a pricing scheme often has a one-to-one relation to the access network technology and the quality of service guarantee. Flat-rate pricing may easily be associated with best effort transport. This implies that some users opt for services without QoS guarantee when favoured by the pricing methodology. This paper explores scenarios where services with different QoS requirements available to users with varying pricing preferences can be provided over a set of IP connection access networks (IP-CANs) of the IMS.We explore the use of different pricing schemes for different IP-CANs of the IMS. We perform testbed evaluations and present results depicting the income patterns of networks enforcing different pricing and charging schemes for VoIP and IPTV services. Moreover, we emphasize the use of simplified pricing schemes on communication networks.The pricing and charging mechanisms used in Next Generation Network (NGN) deployments will influence the profitability of network operators. NGNs present an opportunity for the success of service delivery platforms designed for IP multimedia communications, like the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS). Moreover, they present a platform for the delivery of a multitude of applications and services to users with different expectations and budgets. Although usage-based charging schemes are more meaningful, some recent successful Internet-based applications and services have attracted widespread usage due to enforcement of flat-rate pricing. The choice of a pricing scheme often has a one-to-one relation to the access network technology and the quality of service guarantee. Flat-rate pricing may easily be associated with best effort transport. This implies that some users opt for services without QoS guarantee when favoured by the pricing methodology. This paper explores scenarios where services with different QoS requirements available to users with varying pricing preferences can be provided over a set of IP connection access networks (IP-CANs) of the IMS.We explore the use of different pricing schemes for different IP-CANs of the IMS. We perform testbed evaluations and present results depicting the income patterns of networks enforcing different pricing and charging schemes for VoIP and IPTV services. Moreover, we emphasize the use of simplified pricing schemes on communication networks

Wireless triple play system

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia Electrotécnica e ComputadoresTriple play is a service that combines three types of services: voice, data and multimedia over a single communication channel for a price that is less than the total price of the individual services. However there is no standard for provisioning the Triple play services, rather they are provisioned individually, since the requirements are quite different for each service. The digital revolution helped to create and deliver a high quality media solutions. One of the most demanding services is the Video on Demand (VoD). This implicates a dedicated streaming channel for each user in order to provide normal media player commands (as pause, fast forward). Most of the multimedia companies that develops personalized products does not always fulfil the users needs and are far from being cheap solutions. The goal of the project was to create a reliable and scalable triple play solution that works via Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), fully capable of dealing with the existing state of the art multimedia technologies only resorting to open-source tools. This project was design to be a transparent web environment using only web technologies to maximize the potential of the services. HyperText Markup Language (HTML),Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and JavaScript were the used technologies for the development of the applications. Both a administration and user interfaces were developed to fully manage all video contents and properly view it in a rich and appealing application, providing the proof of concept. The developed prototype was tested in a WLAN with up to four clients and the Quality of Service (QoS) and Quality of Experience (QoE) was measured for several combinations of active services. In the end it is possible to acknowledge that the developed prototype was capable of dealing with all the problems of WLAN technologies and successfully delivery all the proposed services with high QoE

Multimedia session continuity in the IP multimedia subsystem : investigation and testbed implementation

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 91-94).The advent of Internet Protocol (IP) based rich multimedia services and applications has seen rapid growth and adoption in recent years, with an equally increasing user base. Voice over IP (VoIP) and IP Television (IPTV) are key examples of services that are blurring the lines between traditional stove-pipe approach network infrastructures. In these, each service required a different network technology to be provisioned, and could only be accessed through a specific end user equipment (UE) technology. The move towards an all-IP core network infrastructure and the proliferation of multi-capability multi-interface user devices has spurred a convergence trend characterized by access to services and applications through any network, any device and anywhere

Network-based IP flow mobility support in 3GPPs evolved packet core

Includes bibliographical references.Mobile data traffic in cellular networks has increased tremendously in the last few years. Due to the costs associated with licensed spectrum, Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) are battling to manage these increased traffic growths. Offloading mobile data traffic to alternative low cost access networks like Wi-Fi has been proposed as a candidate solution to enable MNOs to alleviate congestion from the cellular networks. This dissertation investigates an offloading technique called IP flow mobility within the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) all-IP mobile core network, the Evolved Packet Core (EPC). IP flow mobility would enable offloading a subset of the mobile user‟s traffic to an alternative access network while allowing the rest of the end-user‟s traffic to be kept in the cellular access; this way, traffic with stringent quality of service requirements like Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) would not experience service disruption or interruption when offloaded. This technique is different from previous offloading techniques where all the end-user‟s traffic is offloaded. IP flow mobility functionality can be realised with either host- or network-based mobility protocols. The recommended IP flow mobility standard of 3GPP is based on the host-based mobility solution, Dual-Stack Mobile IPv6. However, host-based mobility solutions have drawbacks like long handover latencies and produce signaling overhead in the radio access networks, which could be less appealing to MNOs. Network-based mobility solutions, compared to the host-based mobility solutions, have reduced handover latencies with no signaling overhead occurring in the radio access network. Proxy Mobile IPv6 is a networkbased mobility protocol adapted by 3GPP for mobility in the EPC. However, the standardisation of the Proxy Mobile IPv6-based IP flow mobility functionality is still ongoing within 3GPP. A review of related literature and standardisation efforts reveals shortcomings with the Proxy Mobile IPv6 mobility protocol in supporting IP flow mobility. Proxy Mobile IPv6 does not have a mechanism that would ensure session continuity during IP flow handoffs or a mechanism enabling controlling of the forwarding path of a particular IP flow i.e., specifying the access network for the IP flow. The latter mechanism is referred to as IP flow information management and flow-based routing. These mechanisms represent the basis for enabling the IP flow mobility functionality. To address the shortcomings of Proxy Mobile IPv6, this dissertation proposes vi enhancements to the protocol procedures to enable the two mechanisms for IP flow mobility functionality. The proposed enhancements for the session continuity mechanism draw on work in related literature and the proposed enhancements for the IP flow information management and flow-based routing mechanism are based on the concepts used in the Dual- Stack Mobile IPv6 IP flow mobility functionality. Together the two mechanisms allow the end-user to issue requests on what access network a particular IP flow should be routed, and ensure that the IP flows are moved to the particular access network without session discontinuity

Multimedia delivery in the future internet

The term “Networked Media” implies that all kinds of media including text, image, 3D graphics, audio and video are produced, distributed, shared, managed and consumed on-line through various networks, like the Internet, Fiber, WiFi, WiMAX, GPRS, 3G and so on, in a convergent manner [1]. This white paper is the contribution of the Media Delivery Platform (MDP) cluster and aims to cover the Networked challenges of the Networked Media in the transition to the Future of the Internet. Internet has evolved and changed the way we work and live. End users of the Internet have been confronted with a bewildering range of media, services and applications and of technological innovations concerning media formats, wireless networks, terminal types and capabilities. And there is little evidence that the pace of this innovation is slowing. Today, over one billion of users access the Internet on regular basis, more than 100 million users have downloaded at least one (multi)media file and over 47 millions of them do so regularly, searching in more than 160 Exabytes1 of content. In the near future these numbers are expected to exponentially rise. It is expected that the Internet content will be increased by at least a factor of 6, rising to more than 990 Exabytes before 2012, fuelled mainly by the users themselves. Moreover, it is envisaged that in a near- to mid-term future, the Internet will provide the means to share and distribute (new) multimedia content and services with superior quality and striking flexibility, in a trusted and personalized way, improving citizens’ quality of life, working conditions, edutainment and safety. In this evolving environment, new transport protocols, new multimedia encoding schemes, cross-layer inthe network adaptation, machine-to-machine communication (including RFIDs), rich 3D content as well as community networks and the use of peer-to-peer (P2P) overlays are expected to generate new models of interaction and cooperation, and be able to support enhanced perceived quality-of-experience (PQoE) and innovative applications “on the move”, like virtual collaboration environments, personalised services/ media, virtual sport groups, on-line gaming, edutainment. In this context, the interaction with content combined with interactive/multimedia search capabilities across distributed repositories, opportunistic P2P networks and the dynamic adaptation to the characteristics of diverse mobile terminals are expected to contribute towards such a vision. Based on work that has taken place in a number of EC co-funded projects, in Framework Program 6 (FP6) and Framework Program 7 (FP7), a group of experts and technology visionaries have voluntarily contributed in this white paper aiming to describe the status, the state-of-the art, the challenges and the way ahead in the area of Content Aware media delivery platforms

Implementation and Performance Evaluation of an NGN prototype using WiMax as an Access Technology

Telecommunications networks have evolved to IP-based networks, commonly known as Next Generation Networks (NGN). The biggest challenge in providing high quality realtime multimedia applications is achieving a Quality of Service (QoS) consistent with user expectations. One of the key additional factors affecting QoS is the existence of different QoS mechanisms on the heterogeneous technologies used on NGN platforms. This research investigates the techniques used to achieve consistent QoS on network technologies that use different QoS techniques. Numerous proposals for solving the end-to-end QoS problem in IP networks have adopted policy-based management, use of signalling protocols for communicating applications QoS requirements across different Network Elements and QoS provisioning in Network Elements. Such solutions are dependent on the use of traffic classification and knowledge of the QoS requirements of applications and services on the networks. This research identifies the practical difficulties involved in meeting the QoS requirements of network traffic between WiMax and an IP core network. In the work, a solution based on the concept of class-of-service mapping is proposed. In the proposed solution, QoS is implemented on the two networks and the concept of class-of-service mapping is used to integrate the two QoS systems. This essentially provides consistent QoS to applications as they traverse the two network domains and hence meet end-user QoS expectations. The work is evaluated through a NGN prototype to determine the capabilities of the networks to deliver real-time media that meets user expectations

An improved medium access control protocol for real-time applications in WLANs and its firmware development

The IEEE 802.11 Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), commonly known as Wi-Fi, has emerged as a popular internet access technology and researchers are continuously working on improvement of the quality of service (QoS) in WLAN by proposing new and efficient schemes. Voice and video over Internet Protocol (VVoIP) applications are becoming very popular in Wi-Fi enabled portable/handheld devices because of recent technological advancements and lower service costs. Different from normal voice and video streaming, these applications demand symmetric throughput for the upstream and downstream. Existing Wi-Fi standards are optimised for generic internet applications and fail to provide symmetric throughput due to traffic bottleneck at access points. Performance analysis and benchmarking is an integral part of WLAN research, and in the majority of the cases, this is done through computer simulation using popular network simulators such as Network Simulator ff 2 (NS-2) or OPNET. While computer simulation is an excellent approach for saving time and money, results generated from computer simulations do not always match practical observations. This is why, for proper assessment of the merits of a proposed system in WLAN, a trial on a practical hardware platform is highly recommended and is often a requirement. In this thesis work, with a view to address the abovementioned challenges for facilitating VoIP and VVoIP services over Wi-Fi, two key contributions are made: i) formulating a suitable medium access control (MAC) protocol to address symmetric traffic scenario and ii) firmware development of this newly devised MAC protocol for real WLAN hardware. The proposed solution shows signifocant improvements over existing standards by supporting higher number of stations with strict QoS criteria. The proposed hardware platform is available off-the-shelf in the market and is a cost effective way of generating and evaluating performance results on a hardware system

A quality of service architecture for WLAN-wired networks to enhance multimedia support

Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 77-84).The use of WLAN for the provision of IP multimedia services faces a number of challenges which include quality of service (QoS). Because WLAN users access multimedia services usually over a wired backbone, attention must be paid to QoS over the integrated WLAN-wired network. This research focuses on the provision of QoS to WLAN users accessing multimedia services over a wired backbone. In this thesis, the IEEE 802.11-2007 enhanced data channel access (EDCA) mechanism is used to provide prioritized QoS on the WLAN media access control (MAC) layer, while weighted round robin (WRR) queue scheduling is used to provide prioritized QoS at the IP layer. The inter-working of the EDCA scheme in the WLAN and the WRR scheduling scheme in the wired network provides end-to-end QoS on a WLAN-wired IP network. A mapping module is introduced to enable the inter-working of the EDCA and WRR mechanisms