Perceptual Quality Metric as a Performance Tool for ATM Adaptation of MPEG-2 Based Multimedia Applications

In this paper we study the perceptual impact of data loss on MPEG-2 video coded streams transmitted over an ATM network. This impact is measured using a perceptual quality metric based on a spatio-temporal model of the human visual system. Video streams have been transmitted on top of both new network and ATM adaptation layers which provide a robust transmission by applying per-cell sequence numbering combined with a selective Forward Error Correction (FEC) mechanism. We compare their performance against a transmission over AAL5. Results show that the proposed AAL behaves better in terms of both network performance and perceived quality of the MPEG-2 decoded sequenc

New Network and ATM Adaptation Layers for Interactive MPEG-2 Video Communications: A Performance Study Based on Psychophysics

In this paper, we present new Network and ATM Adaptation Layers for interactive MPEG-2 video communications. These layers provide reliable transmission by applying per-cell sequence numbering combined with a selective Forward Error Correction (FEC) mechanism based on Burst Erasure codes. We compare the performance of the proposed scheme with a transmission over AAL5 by simulating the transport of an MPEG-2 sequence over an ATM network. Performance is measured in terms of Cell Loss Ratio (CLR) and user perceived quality. The proposed layers achieve significant improvements on the cell loss figures obtained for AAL5 under the same traffic conditions. To evaluate the impact of cell losses at the user level, we apply a perceptual quality metric to the decoded MPEG-2 sequences. According to the computational metric and subjective rating, the proposed multimedia AAL (MAAL) achieves a graceful quality degradation. The application of a selective FEC achieves an even smoother image quality degradation with a low overhea

New Network and ATM Adaptation Layers for Real-Time Multimedia Applications: A Performance Study Based on Psychophysics

We present in this paper Network and ATM Adaptation Layers for real-time multimedia applications. These layers provide a robust transmission by applying per-cell sequence numbering combined with a selective Forward Error Correction (FEC) mechanism based on Burst Erasure codes. We compare their performance against a transmission over AAL5 by simulating the transport of an MPEG-2 sequence over an ATM network. Performance is measured in terms of Cell Loss Ratio (CLR) and user perceived quality. The proposed layers achieve an improvement on the cell loss figures obtained for AAL5 of about one order of magnitude under the same traffic conditions. To evaluate the impact of cell losses at the application level, we apply a perceptual quality measure to the decoded MPEG-2 sequences. From a perceptual point of view, the proposed AAL achieves a graceful quality degradation compared to AAL5 which shows a critical CLR value beyond which quality drops very fast. The application of a selective FEC achieves an even smoother image quality degradation with a small overhead

Reliable Transmission of MPEG-2 VBR Video Streams over New Network Adaptation and ATM Adaptation Layers

This paper adresses the transmission of VBR MPEG-2 video streams on top of both Network Adaptation (NAL) and ATM Adaptation Layers (AAL) for real-time multimedia applications. The NAL, specific to MPEG-2, provides a selective data protection mechanism based on syntactic criteria. The AAL provides a reliable transmission by applying per-cell sequence numbering combined with a selective Forward Error Correction (FEC) mechanism based on Burst Erasure codes. Studies carried out with Constant Bit Rate (CBR) video streams showed improvements in terms of network performance evaluated by the cell loss ratio (CLR) as well as in terms of user perceived quality compared to the performance obtained with AAL5 under the same network conditions. This paper proposes improvements at the NAL and presents the results obtained for the transmission of Variable Bit Rate (VBR) video streams. To evalute the impact of cell losses at the application level, we apply a perceptual quality measure to the decoded MPEG-2 sequences which allows us to evaluate performance at the user level

Designing new network adaptation and ATM adaptation layers for interactive multimedia applications

Multimedia services, audiovisual applications composed of a combination of discrete and continuous data streams, will be a major part of the traffic flowing in the next generation of high speed networks. The cornerstones for multimedia are Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) foreseen as the technology for the future Broadband Integrated Services Digital Network (B-ISDN) and audio and video compression algorithms such as MPEG-2 that reduce applications bandwidth requirements. Powerful desktop computers available today can integrate seamlessly the network access and the applications and thus bring the new multimedia services to home and business users. Among these services, those based on multipoint capabilities are expected to play a major role.    Interactive multimedia applications unlike traditional data transfer applications have stringent simultaneous requirements in terms of loss and delay jitter due to the nature of audiovisual information. In addition, such stream-based applications deliver data at a variable rate, in particular if a constant quality is required.    ATM, is able to integrate traffic of different nature within a single network creating interactions of different types that translate into delay jitter and loss. Traditional protocol layers do not have the appropriate mechanisms to provide the required network quality of service (QoS) for such interactive variable bit rate (VBR) multimedia multipoint applications. This lack of functionalities calls for the design of protocol layers with the appropriate functions to handle the stringent requirements of multimedia.    This thesis contributes to the solution of this problem by proposing new Network Adaptation and ATM Adaptation Layers for interactive VBR multimedia multipoint services.    The foundations to build these new multimedia protocol layers are twofold; the requirements of real-time multimedia applications and the nature of compressed audiovisual data.    On this basis, we present a set of design principles we consider as mandatory for a generic Multimedia AAL capable of handling interactive VBR multimedia applications in point-to-point as well as multicast environments. These design principles are then used as a foundation to derive a first set of functions for the MAAL, namely; cell loss detection via sequence numbering, packet delineation, dummy cell insertion and cell loss correction via RSE FEC techniques.    The proposed functions, partly based on some theoretical studies, are implemented and evaluated in a simulated environment. Performances are evaluated from the network point of view using classic metrics such as cell and packet loss. We also study the behavior of the cell loss process in order to evaluate the efficiency to be expected from the proposed cell loss correction method. We also discuss the difficulties to map network QoS parameters to user QoS parameters for multimedia applications and especially for video information. In order to present a complete performance evaluation that is also meaningful to the end-user, we make use of the MPQM metric to map the obtained network performance results to a user level. We evaluate the impact that cell loss has onto video and also the improvements achieved with the MAAL.    All performance results are compared to an equivalent implementation based on AAL5, as specified by the current ITU-T and ATM Forum standards.    An AAL has to be by definition generic. But to fully exploit the functionalities of the AAL layer, it is necessary to have a protocol layer that will efficiently interface the network and the applications. This role is devoted to the Network Adaptation Layer.    The network adaptation layer (NAL) we propose, aims at efficiently interface the applications to the underlying network to achieve a reliable but low overhead transmission of video streams. Since this requires an a priori knowledge of the information structure to be transmitted, we propose the NAL to be codec specific.    The NAL targets interactive multimedia applications. These applications share a set of common requirements independent of the encoding scheme used. This calls for the definition of a set of design principles that should be shared by any NAL even if the implementation of the functions themselves is codec specific. On the basis of the design principles, we derive the common functions that NALs have to perform which are mainly two; the segmentation and reassembly of data packets and the selective data protection.    On this basis, we develop an MPEG-2 specific NAL. It provides a perceptual syntactic information protection, the PSIP, which results in an intelligent and minimum overhead protection of video information. The PSIP takes advantage of the hierarchical organization of the compressed video data, common to the majority of the compression algorithms, to perform a selective data protection based on the perceptual relevance of the syntactic information.    The transmission over the combined NAL-MAAL layers shows significant improvement in terms of CLR and perceptual quality compared to equivalent transmissions over AAL5 with the same overhead.    The usage of the MPQM as a performance metric, which is one of the main contributions of this thesis, leads to a very interesting observation. The experimental results show that for unexpectedly high CLRs, the average perceptual quality remains close to the original value. The economical potential of such an observation is very important. Given that the data flows are VBR, it is possible to improve network utilization by means of statistical multiplexing. It is therefore possible to reduce the cost per communication by increasing the number of connections with a minimal loss in quality.    This conclusion could not have been derived without the combined usage of perceptual and network QoS metrics, which have been able to unveil the economic potential of perceptually protected streams.    The proposed concepts are finally tested in a real environment where a proof-of-concept implementation of the MAAL has shown a behavior close to the simulated results therefore validating the proposed multimedia protocol layers

Traffic control mechanisms with cell rate simulation for ATM networks.

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Quality-of-service management in IP networks

Quality of Service (QoS) in Internet Protocol (IF) Networks has been the subject of active research over the past two decades. Integrated Services (IntServ) and Differentiated Services (DiffServ) QoS architectures have emerged as proposed standards for resource allocation in IF Networks. These two QoS architectures support the need for multiple traffic queuing systems to allow for resource partitioning for heterogeneous applications making use of the networks. There have been a number of specifications or proposals for the number of traffic queuing classes (Class of Service (CoS)) that will support integrated services in IF Networks, but none has provided verification in the form of analytical or empirical investigation to prove that its specification or proposal will be optimum. Despite the existence of the two standard QoS architectures and the large volume of research work that has been carried out on IF QoS, its deployment still remains elusive in the Internet. This is not unconnected with the complexities associated with some aspects of the standard QoS architectures. [Continues.

Traffic Management and Congestion Control in the ATM Network Model.

Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) networking technology has been chosen by the International Telegraph and Telephony Consultative Committee (CCITT) for use on future local as well as wide area networks to handle traffic types of a wide range. It is a cell based network architecture that resembles circuit switched networks, providing Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees not normally found on data networks. Although the specifications for the architecture have been continuously evolving, traffic congestion management techniques for ATM networks have not been very well defined yet. This thesis studies the traffic management problem in detail, provides some theoretical understanding and presents a collection of techniques to handle the problem under various operating conditions. A detailed simulation of various ATM traffic types is carried out and the collected data is analyzed to gain an insight into congestion formation patterns. Problems that may arise during migration planning from legacy LANs to ATM technology are also considered. We present an algorithm to identify certain portions of the network that should be upgraded to ATM first. The concept of adaptive burn-in is introduced to help ease the computational costs involved in virtual circuit setup and tear down operations