7,963 research outputs found
A cross-layer approach to enhance QoS for multimedia applications over satellite
The need for on-demand QoS support for communications over satellite is of primary importance for distributed multimedia applications. This is particularly true for the return link which is often a bottleneck due to the large set of end-users accessing a very limited uplink resource. Facing this need, Demand Assignment Multiple Access (DAMA) is a classical technique that allows satellite operators to offer various types of services, while managing the resources of the satellite system efficiently. Tackling the quality degradation and delay accumulation issues that can result from the use of these techniques, this paper proposes an instantiation of the Application Layer Framing (ALF) approach, using a cross-layer interpreter(xQoS-Interpreter). The information provided by this interpreter is used to manage the resource provided to a terminal by the satellite system in order to improve the quality of multimedia presentations from the end users point of view. Several experiments are carried out for different loads on the return link. Their impact on QoS is measured through different application as well as network level metrics
Supporting real time video over ATM networks
Includes bibliographical references.In this project, we propose and evaluate an approach to delimit and tag such independent video slice at the ATM layer for early discard. This involves the use of a tag cell differentiated from the rest of the data by its PTI value and a modified tag switch to facilitate the selective discarding of affected cells within each video slice as opposed to dropping of cells at random from multiple video frames
A survey of real-time crowd rendering
In this survey we review, classify and compare existing approaches for real-time crowd rendering. We first overview character animation techniques, as they are highly tied to crowd rendering performance, and then we analyze the state of the art in crowd rendering. We discuss different representations for level-of-detail (LoD) rendering of animated characters, including polygon-based, point-based, and image-based techniques, and review different criteria for runtime LoD selection. Besides LoD approaches, we review classic acceleration schemes, such as frustum culling and occlusion culling, and describe how they can be adapted to handle crowds of animated characters. We also discuss specific acceleration techniques for crowd rendering, such as primitive pseudo-instancing, palette skinning, and dynamic key-pose caching, which benefit from current graphics hardware. We also address other factors affecting performance and realism of crowds such as lighting, shadowing, clothing and variability. Finally we provide an exhaustive comparison of the most relevant approaches in the field.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft
Communications protocols for a fault tolerant, integrated local area network for Space Station applications
The evolutionary growth of the Space Station and the diverse activities onboard are expected to require a hierarchy of integrated,local area networks capable of supporting data, voice and video communications. In addition, fault tolerant network operation is necessary to protect communications between critical systems attached to the net and to relieve the valuable human resources onboard Space Station of day-to-day data system repair tasks. An experimental, local area network is being developed which will serve as a testbed for investigating candidate algorithms and technologies for a fault tolerant, integrated network. The establishment of a set of rules or protocols which govern communications on the net is essential to obtain orderly and reliable operation. A hierarchy of protocols for the experimental network is presented and procedures for data and control communications are described
QoS-Competitive Video Buffering
Many multimedia applications require transmission of streaming video from a server to a client across an internetwork. In many cases loss may be unavoidable due to congestion or heterogeneous nature of the network. We explore how discard policies can be used in order to maximize the quality of service (QoS) perceived by the client. In our model the QoS of a video stream is measured in terms of a cost function, which takes into account the discarded frames. In this paper we consider online policies for selective frame discard and analyze their performance by means of competitive analysis. In competitive analysis the performance of a given online policy is compared with that of an optimal offline policy. In this work we present competitive policies for a wide range of cost functions, describing the QoS of a video stream
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
XNect: Real-time Multi-Person 3D Motion Capture with a Single RGB Camera
We present a real-time approach for multi-person 3D motion capture at over 30
fps using a single RGB camera. It operates successfully in generic scenes which
may contain occlusions by objects and by other people. Our method operates in
subsequent stages. The first stage is a convolutional neural network (CNN) that
estimates 2D and 3D pose features along with identity assignments for all
visible joints of all individuals.We contribute a new architecture for this
CNN, called SelecSLS Net, that uses novel selective long and short range skip
connections to improve the information flow allowing for a drastically faster
network without compromising accuracy. In the second stage, a fully connected
neural network turns the possibly partial (on account of occlusion) 2Dpose and
3Dpose features for each subject into a complete 3Dpose estimate per
individual. The third stage applies space-time skeletal model fitting to the
predicted 2D and 3D pose per subject to further reconcile the 2D and 3D pose,
and enforce temporal coherence. Our method returns the full skeletal pose in
joint angles for each subject. This is a further key distinction from previous
work that do not produce joint angle results of a coherent skeleton in real
time for multi-person scenes. The proposed system runs on consumer hardware at
a previously unseen speed of more than 30 fps given 512x320 images as input
while achieving state-of-the-art accuracy, which we will demonstrate on a range
of challenging real-world scenes.Comment: To appear in ACM Transactions on Graphics (SIGGRAPH) 202
Quality of service optimization of multimedia traffic in mobile networks
Mobile communication systems have continued to evolve beyond the currently deployed Third
Generation (3G) systems with the main goal of providing higher capacity. Systems beyond 3G
are expected to cater for a wide variety of services such as speech, data, image transmission,
video, as well as multimedia services consisting of a combination of these. With the air interface
being the bottleneck in mobile networks, recent enhancing technologies such as the High Speed
Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), incorporate major changes to the radio access segment of
3G Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). HSDPA introduces new features
such as fast link adaptation mechanisms, fast packet scheduling, and physical layer retransmissions
in the base stations, necessitating buffering of data at the air interface which presents a
bottleneck to end-to-end communication. Hence, in order to provide end-to-end Quality of
Service (QoS) guarantees to multimedia services in wireless networks such as HSDPA, efficient
buffer management schemes are required at the air interface.
The main objective of this thesis is to propose and evaluate solutions that will address the
QoS optimization of multimedia traffic at the radio link interface of HSDPA systems. In the
thesis, a novel queuing system known as the Time-Space Priority (TSP) scheme is proposed for
multimedia traffic QoS control. TSP provides customized preferential treatment to the constituent
flows in the multimedia traffic to suit their diverse QoS requirements. With TSP queuing, the
real-time component of the multimedia traffic, being delay sensitive and loss tolerant, is given
transmission priority; while the non-real-time component, being loss sensitive and delay tolerant,
enjoys space priority. Hence, based on the TSP queuing paradigm, new buffer managementalgorithms are designed for joint QoS control of the diverse components in a multimedia session
of the same HSDPA user. In the thesis, a TSP based buffer management algorithm known as the
Enhanced Time Space Priority (E-TSP) is proposed for HSDPA. E-TSP incorporates flow
control mechanisms to mitigate congestion in the air interface buffer of a user with multimedia
session comprising real-time and non-real-time flows. Thus, E-TSP is designed to provide
efficient network and radio resource utilization to improve end-to-end multimedia traffic
performance. In order to allow real-time optimization of the QoS control between the real-time
and non-real-time flows of the HSDPA multimedia session, another TSP based buffer management
algorithm known as the Dynamic Time Space Priority (D-TSP) is proposed. D-TSP
incorporates dynamic priority switching between the real-time and non-real-time flows. D-TSP
is designed to allow optimum QoS trade-off between the flows whilst still guaranteeing the
stringent real-time component’s QoS requirements. The thesis presents results of extensive
performance studies undertaken via analytical modelling and dynamic network-level HSDPA
simulations demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed TSP queuing system and the TSP
based buffer management schemes
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