Evaluation of the MDC and FEC over the quality of service and quality of experience for video distribution in ad hoc networks

Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) offer an excellent scenario for deploying communication applications because of the connectivity and versatility of this kind of networks. In contrast, the topology is usually extremely dynamic causing high rate of packet loss, so that ensuring a specific Quality of Service (QoS) for real-time video services becomes a hard challenge. In this paper, we evaluate the effect of using Multiple Description Coding (MDC) and Forward Error Correction (FEC) techniques for improving video quality in a multimedia content distribution system. A hybrid architecture using fixed and wireless ad hoc networks is proposed, which enables the use of multipoint-to-point transmission. MDC and FEC mechanisms can be combined with multipath transmission to increase the network efficiency and recover lost packets, improving the overall Quality of Experience (QoE) of the receiver. Simulations have been analyzed paying attention to objective parameters (Peak Signal to Noise Ratio, Packet Delivery Ratio, Decodable Frame Rate and interruptions) and subjective parameters. Results show that MDC increases the probability of packet delivery and FEC is able to recover lost frames and reduce video interruptions in moderate mobility scenarios, resulting in the improvement of video quality and the final user experience.This work was supported by project MIQUEL (TEC2007- 68119-C02-01/TCM) of the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science. The authors would like to thank the Editor and the reviewers for helpful suggestions to improve the quality of this paper.Acelas Delgado, P.; Arce Vila, P.; Guerri Cebollada, JC.; Castellanos Hernández, WE. (2014). Evaluation of the MDC and FEC over the quality of service and quality of experience for video distribution in ad hoc networks. 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Management of Digital Video Broadcasting Services in Open Delivery Platforms

The future of Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) is moving towards solutions offering an efficient way of carrying interactive IP multimedia services over digital terrestrial broadcasting networks to handheld terminals. One of the most promising technologies is Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld (DVB-H), at present under standardisation. Services deployed via this type of DVB technologies should enjoy reliability comparable to TV services and high quality standards. However, the market at present does not provide effective and economical solutions for the deployment of such services over multi-domain IP networks, due to their high level of unreliability. This paper focuses on service management, service level agreement (SLA) and network performance requirements of DVB-H services. Experimental results are presented concerning QoS sensitivity to network performance of DVB-H services delivered over a multi-domain IP network. Moreover, a solution for efficient and cost effective service management via QoS monitoring and control and network SLA design is proposed. The solution gives DVB-H operators the possibility of fully managing service QoS without being tied to third party operators

Understanding user experience of mobile video: Framework, measurement, and optimization

Since users have become the focus of product/service design in last decade, the term User eXperience (UX) has been frequently used in the field of Human-Computer-Interaction (HCI). Research on UX facilitates a better understanding of the various aspects of the user’s interaction with the product or service. Mobile video, as a new and promising service and research field, has attracted great attention. Due to the significance of UX in the success of mobile video (Jordan, 2002), many researchers have centered on this area, examining users’ expectations, motivations, requirements, and usage context. As a result, many influencing factors have been explored (Buchinger, Kriglstein, Brandt & Hlavacs, 2011; Buchinger, Kriglstein & Hlavacs, 2009). However, a general framework for specific mobile video service is lacking for structuring such a great number of factors. To measure user experience of multimedia services such as mobile video, quality of experience (QoE) has recently become a prominent concept. In contrast to the traditionally used concept quality of service (QoS), QoE not only involves objectively measuring the delivered service but also takes into account user’s needs and desires when using the service, emphasizing the user’s overall acceptability on the service. Many QoE metrics are able to estimate the user perceived quality or acceptability of mobile video, but may be not enough accurate for the overall UX prediction due to the complexity of UX. Only a few frameworks of QoE have addressed more aspects of UX for mobile multimedia applications but need be transformed into practical measures. The challenge of optimizing UX remains adaptations to the resource constrains (e.g., network conditions, mobile device capabilities, and heterogeneous usage contexts) as well as meeting complicated user requirements (e.g., usage purposes and personal preferences). In this chapter, we investigate the existing important UX frameworks, compare their similarities and discuss some important features that fit in the mobile video service. Based on the previous research, we propose a simple UX framework for mobile video application by mapping a variety of influencing factors of UX upon a typical mobile video delivery system. Each component and its factors are explored with comprehensive literature reviews. The proposed framework may benefit in user-centred design of mobile video through taking a complete consideration of UX influences and in improvement of mobile videoservice quality by adjusting the values of certain factors to produce a positive user experience. It may also facilitate relative research in the way of locating important issues to study, clarifying research scopes, and setting up proper study procedures. We then review a great deal of research on UX measurement, including QoE metrics and QoE frameworks of mobile multimedia. Finally, we discuss how to achieve an optimal quality of user experience by focusing on the issues of various aspects of UX of mobile video. In the conclusion, we suggest some open issues for future study

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

QoE-centric management of advanced multimedia services

Over the last years, multimedia content has become more prominent than ever. Particularly, video streaming is responsible for more than a half of the total global bandwidth consumption on the Internet. As the original Internet was not designed to deliver such real-time, bandwidth-consuming applications, a serious challenge is posed on how to efficiently provide the best service to the users. This requires a shift in the classical approach used to deliver multimedia content, from a pure Quality of Service (QoS) to a full Quality of Experience (QoE) perspective. While QoS parameters are mainly related to low-level network aspects, the QoE reflects how the end-users perceive a particular multimedia service. As the relationship between QoS parameters and QoE is far from linear, a classical QoS-centric delivery is not able to fully optimize the quality as perceived by the users. This paper provides an overview of the main challenges this PhD aims to tackle in the field of end-to-end QoE optimization of video streaming services and, more precisely, of HTTP Adaptive Streaming (HAS) solutions, which are quickly becoming the de facto standard for video delivery over the Internet

Design and evaluation of a DASH-compliant second screen video player for live events in mobile scenarios

The huge diffusion of mobile devices is rapidly changing the way multimedia content is consumed. Mobile devices are often used as a second screen, providing complementary information on the content shown on the primary screen, as different camera angles in case of a sport event. The introduction of multiple camera angles poses many challenges with respect to guaranteeing a high Quality of Experience to the end user, especially when the live aspect, different devices and highly variable network conditions typical of mobile environments come into play. Due to the ability of HTTP Adaptive Streaming (HAS) protocols to dynamically adapt to bandwidth fluctuations, they are especially suited for the delivery of multimedia content in mobile environments. In HAS, each video is temporally segmented and stored in different quality levels. Rate adaptation heuristics, deployed at the video player, allow the most appropriate quality level to be dynamically requested, based on the current network conditions. Recently, a standardized solution has been proposed by the MPEG consortium, called Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH). We present in this paper a DASH-compliant iOS video player designed to support research on rate adaptation heuristics for live second screen scenarios in mobile environments. The video player allows to monitor the battery consumption and CPU usage of the mobile device and to provide this information to the heuristic. Live and Video-on-Demand streaming scenarios and real-time multi-video switching are supported as well. Quantitative results based on real 3G traces are reported on how the developed prototype has been used to benchmark two existing heuristics and to analyse the main aspects affecting battery lifetime in mobile video streaming

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