We take an analytical approach to study Quality of user Experience (QoE) for
video streaming applications. First, we show that random linear network coding
applied to blocks of video frames can significantly simplify the packet
requests at the network layer and save resources by avoiding duplicate packet
reception. Network coding allows us to model the receiver's buffer as a queue
with Poisson arrivals and deterministic departures. We consider the probability
of interruption in video playback as well as the number of initially buffered
packets (initial waiting time) as the QoE metrics. We characterize the optimal
trade-off between these metrics by providing upper and lower bounds on the
minimum initial buffer size, required to achieve certain level of interruption
probability for different regimes of the system parameters. Our bounds are
asymptotically tight as the file size goes to infinity.Comment: Submitted to ISIT 2010 - Full versio
