Advanced solutions for quality-oriented multimedia broadcasting

Multimedia content is increasingly being delivered via different types of networks to viewers in a variety of locations and contexts using a variety of devices. The ubiquitous nature of multimedia services comes at a cost, however. The successful delivery of multimedia services will require overcoming numerous technological challenges many of which have a direct effect on the quality of the multimedia experience. For example, due to dynamically changing requirements and networking conditions, the delivery of multimedia content has traditionally adopted a best effort approach. However, this approach has often led to the end-user perceived quality of multimedia-based services being negatively affected. Yet the quality of multimedia content is a vital issue for the continued acceptance and proliferation of these services. Indeed, end-users are becoming increasingly quality-aware in their expectations of multimedia experience and demand an ever-widening spectrum of rich multimedia-based services. As a consequence, there is a continuous and extensive research effort, by both industry and academia, to find solutions for improving the quality of multimedia content delivered to the users; as well, international standards bodies, such as the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), are renewing their effort on the standardization of multimedia technologies. There are very different directions in which research has attempted to find solutions in order to improve the quality of the rich media content delivered over various network types. It is in this context that this special issue on broadcast multimedia quality of the IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting illustrates some of these avenues and presents some of the most significant research results obtained by various teams of researchers from many countries. This special issue provides an example, albeit inevitably limited, of the richness and breath of the current research on multimedia broadcasting services. The research i- - ssues addressed in this special issue include, among others, factors that influence user perceived quality, encoding-related quality assessment and control, transmission and coverage-based solutions and objective quality measurements

Packet scheduling in satellite LTE networks employing MIMO technology.

Doctor of Philosophy in Electronic Engineering. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2014.Rapid growth in the number of mobile users and ongoing demand for different types of telecommunication services from mobile networks, have driven the need for new technologies that provide high data rates and satisfy their respective Quality of Service (QoS) requirements, irrespective of their location. The satellite component will play a vital role in these new technologies, since the terrestrial component is not able to provide global coverage due to economic and technical limitations. This has led to the emergence of Satellite Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks which employ Multiple-In Multiple-Out (MIMO) technology. In order to achieve the set QoS targets, required data rates and fairness among various users with different traffic demands in the satellite LTE network, it is crucial to design an effective scheduling and a sub-channel allocation scheme that will provide an optimal balance of all these requirements. It is against this background that this study investigates packet scheduling in satellite LTE networks employing MIMO technology. One of the main foci of this study is to propose new cross-layer based packet scheduling schemes, tagged Queue Aware Fair (QAF) and Channel Based Queue Sensitive (CBQS) scheduling schemes. The proposed schemes are designed to improve both fairness and network throughput without compromising users’ QoS demands, as they provide a good trade-off between throughput, QoS demands and fairness. They also improve the performance of the network in comparison with other scheduling schemes. The comparison is determined through simulations. Due to the fact that recent schedulers provide a trade-off among major performance indices, a new performance index to evaluate the overall performance of each scheduler is derived. This index is tagged the Scheduling Performance Metric (SPM). The study also investigates the impact of the long propagation delay and different effective isotropic radiated powers on the performance of the satellite LTE network. The results show that both have a significant impact on network performance. In order to actualize an optimal scheduling scheme for the satellite LTE network, the scheduling problem is formulated as an optimization function and an optimal solution is obtained using Karush-Kuhn-Tucker multipliers. The obtained Near Optimal Scheduling Scheme (NOSS), whose aim is to maximize the network throughput without compromising users’ QoS demands and fairness, provides better throughput and spectral efficiency performance than other schedulers. The comparison is determined through simulations. Based on the new SPM, the proposed NOSS1 and NOSS2 outperform other schedulers. A stability analysis is also presented to determine whether or not the proposed scheduler will provide a stable network. A fluid limit technique is used for the stability analysis. Finally, a sub-channel allocation scheme is proposed, with the aim of providing a better sub-channel or Physical Resource Block (PRB) allocation method, tagged the Utility Auction Based (UAB) subchannel allocation scheme that will improve the system performance of the satellite LTE network. The results show that the proposed method performs better than the other scheme. The comparison is obtained through simulations

Adaptive Modulation and Coding and Cooperative ARQ in a Cognitive Radio System

In this paper, a joint cross-layer design of adaptive modulation and coding (AMC) and cooperative automatic repeat request (C-ARQ) scheme is proposed for a secondary user in a shared-spectrum environment. First, based on the statistical descriptions of the channel, closed-form expressions of the average spectral efficiency (SE) and the average packet loss rate (PLR) are presented. Then, the cross-layer scheme is designed, with the aim of maximizing the average SE while maintaining the average PLR under a prescribed level. An optimization problem is formed, and a sub-optimal solution is found: the target packet error rates (PER) for the secondary system channels are obtained and the corresponding sub-optimal AMC rate adaptation policy is derived based on the target PERs. Finally, the average SE and the average PLR performance of the proposed scheme are presented

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

Packet scheduling in satellite HSDPA networks.

Thesis (M.Sc.Eng.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.The continuous growth in wireless networks is not showing any sign of slowing down as new services, new technologies and new mobile users continue to emerge. Satellite networks are expected to complement the terrestrial network and be a valid option to provide broadband communications services to both fixed and mobile users in scenarios where terrestrial networks cannot be used due to technical and economical viability. In the current emerging satellite networks, where different users with varying traffic demands ranging from multimedia, voice to data and with limited capacity, Radio Resource Management (RRM) is considered as one of the most significant and challenging aspect needed to provide acceptable quality of service that will meet the requirements of the different mobile users. This dissertation considers Packet Scheduling in the Satellite High Speed Downlink Packet Access (S-HSDPA) network. The main focus of this dissertation is to propose a new cross-layer designed packet scheduling scheme, which is one of the functions of RRM, called Queue Aware Channel Based (QACB) Scheduler. The proposed scheduler, which, attempts to sustain the quality of service requirements of different traffic requests, improves the system performance compared to the existing schedulers. The performance analysis comparison of the throughput, delay and fairness is determined through simulations. These metrics have been chosen they are three major performance indices used in wireless communications. Due to long propagation delay in HSDPA via GEO satellite, there is misalignment between the instantaneous channel condition of the mobile user and the one reported to the base station (Node B) in S-HSDPA. This affects effectiveness of the channel based packet schedulers and leads to either under utilization of resource or loss of packets. Hence, this dissertation investigates the effect of the introduction of a Signal-to-Noise (SNR) Margin which is used to mitigate the effect of the long propagation delay on performance of S-HSDPA, and the appropriate SNR margin to be used to achieve the best performance is determined. This is determined using both a semi-analytical and a simulation approach. The results show that the SNR margin of 1.5 dB produces the best performance. Finally, the dissertation investigates the effect of the different Radio Link Control (RLC) Transmission modes which are Acknowledged Mode (AM) and Unacknowledged Mode (UM) as it affects different traffic types and schedulers in S-HSDPA. Proportional fair (PF) scheduler and our proposed, QACB, scheduler have been considered as the schedulers for this investigation. The results show that traffic types are sensitive to the transmitting RLC modes and that the QACB scheduler provides better performance compared to PF scheduler in the two RLC modes considered

On Transmission System Design for Wireless Broadcasting

This thesis considers aspects related to the design and standardisation of transmission systems for wireless broadcasting, comprising terrestrial and mobile reception. The purpose is to identify which factors influence the technical decisions and what issues could be better considered in the design process in order to assess different use cases, service scenarios and end-user quality. Further, the necessity of cross-layer optimisation for efficient data transmission is emphasised and means to take this into consideration are suggested. The work is mainly related terrestrial and mobile digital video broadcasting systems but many of the findings can be generalised also to other transmission systems and design processes. The work has led to three main conclusions. First, it is discovered that there are no sufficiently accurate error criteria for measuring the subjective perceived audiovisual quality that could be utilised in transmission system design. Means for designing new error criteria for mobile TV (television) services are suggested and similar work related to other services is recommended. Second, it is suggested that in addition to commercial requirements there should be technical requirements setting the frame work for the design process of a new transmission system. The technical requirements should include the assessed reception conditions, technical quality of service and service functionalities. Reception conditions comprise radio channel models, receiver types and antenna types. Technical quality of service consists of bandwidth, timeliness and reliability. Of these, the thesis focuses on radio channel models and errorcriteria (reliability) as two of the most important design challenges and provides means to optimise transmission parameters based on these. Third, the thesis argues that the most favourable development for wireless broadcasting would be a single system suitable for all scenarios of wireless broadcasting. It is claimed that there are no major technical obstacles to achieve this and that the recently published second generation digital terrestrial television broadcasting system provides a good basis. The challenges and opportunities of a universal wireless broadcasting system are discussed mainly from technical but briefly also from commercial and regulatory aspectSiirretty Doriast

Interoperability of wireless communication technologies in hybrid networks: Evaluation of end-to-end interoperability issues and quality of service requirements

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Hybrid Networks employing wireless communication technologies have nowadays brought closer the vision of communication “anywhere, any time with anyone”. Such communication technologies consist of various standards, protocols, architectures, characteristics, models, devices, modulation and coding techniques. All these different technologies naturally may share some common characteristics, but there are also many important differences. New advances in these technologies are emerging very rapidly, with the advent of new models, characteristics, protocols and architectures. This rapid evolution imposes many challenges and issues to be addressed, and of particular importance are the interoperability issues of the following wireless technologies: Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) IEEE802.11, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) IEEE 802.16, Single Channel per Carrier (SCPC), Digital Video Broadcasting of Satellite (DVB-S/DVB-S2), and Digital Video Broadcasting Return Channel through Satellite (DVB-RCS). Due to the differences amongst wireless technologies, these technologies do not generally interoperate easily with each other because of various interoperability and Quality of Service (QoS) issues. The aim of this study is to assess and investigate end-to-end interoperability issues and QoS requirements, such as bandwidth, delays, jitter, latency, packet loss, throughput, TCP performance, UDP performance, unicast and multicast services and availability, on hybrid wireless communication networks (employing both satellite broadband and terrestrial wireless technologies). The thesis provides an introduction to wireless communication technologies followed by a review of previous research studies on Hybrid Networks (both satellite and terrestrial wireless technologies, particularly Wi-Fi, WiMAX, DVB-RCS, and SCPC). Previous studies have discussed Wi-Fi, WiMAX, DVB-RCS, SCPC and 3G technologies and their standards as well as their properties and characteristics, such as operating frequency, bandwidth, data rate, basic configuration, coverage, power, interference, social issues, security problems, physical and MAC layer design and development issues. Although some previous studies provide valuable contributions to this area of research, they are limited to link layer characteristics, TCP performance, delay, bandwidth, capacity, data rate, and throughput. None of the studies cover all aspects of end-to-end interoperability issues and QoS requirements; such as bandwidth, delay, jitter, latency, packet loss, link performance, TCP and UDP performance, unicast and multicast performance, at end-to-end level, on Hybrid wireless networks. Interoperability issues are discussed in detail and a comparison of the different technologies and protocols was done using appropriate testing tools, assessing various performance measures including: bandwidth, delay, jitter, latency, packet loss, throughput and availability testing. The standards, protocol suite/ models and architectures for Wi-Fi, WiMAX, DVB-RCS, SCPC, alongside with different platforms and applications, are discussed and compared. Using a robust approach, which includes a new testing methodology and a generic test plan, the testing was conducted using various realistic test scenarios on real networks, comprising variable numbers and types of nodes. The data, traces, packets, and files were captured from various live scenarios and sites. The test results were analysed in order to measure and compare the characteristics of wireless technologies, devices, protocols and applications. The motivation of this research is to study all the end-to-end interoperability issues and Quality of Service requirements for rapidly growing Hybrid Networks in a comprehensive and systematic way. The significance of this research is that it is based on a comprehensive and systematic investigation of issues and facts, instead of hypothetical ideas/scenarios or simulations, which informed the design of a test methodology for empirical data gathering by real network testing, suitable for the measurement of hybrid network single-link or end-to-end issues using proven test tools. This systematic investigation of the issues encompasses an extensive series of tests measuring delay, jitter, packet loss, bandwidth, throughput, availability, performance of audio and video session, multicast and unicast performance, and stress testing. This testing covers most common test scenarios in hybrid networks and gives recommendations in achieving good end-to-end interoperability and QoS in hybrid networks. Contributions of study include the identification of gaps in the research, a description of interoperability issues, a comparison of most common test tools, the development of a generic test plan, a new testing process and methodology, analysis and network design recommendations for end-to-end interoperability issues and QoS requirements. This covers the complete cycle of this research. It is found that UDP is more suitable for hybrid wireless network as compared to TCP, particularly for the demanding applications considered, since TCP presents significant problems for multimedia and live traffic which requires strict QoS requirements on delay, jitter, packet loss and bandwidth. The main bottleneck for satellite communication is the delay of approximately 600 to 680 ms due to the long distance factor (and the finite speed of light) when communicating over geostationary satellites. The delay and packet loss can be controlled using various methods, such as traffic classification, traffic prioritization, congestion control, buffer management, using delay compensator, protocol compensator, developing automatic request technique, flow scheduling, and bandwidth allocation