Abstract
Supporting high quality multimedia streaming on wireless devices poses several challenges compared to wired networks due to the high variance in network performance encountered in the mobile environment. Although rate adaptation is commonly used in multimedia applications to compensate for fluctuations in network performance, it is a reactive mechanism which is not aware of the frequently changing connectivity that may occur on mobile devices. This paper proposed a performance evaluation model for multimedia streaming applications that is aware of user mobility and network performance. We presented an example of mathematical solution to the model and demonstrated the functionality using common mobility and connectivity examples that may be found in an urban environment. The proposed model is evaluated based on this functionality and how it may be used to enhance application performance.
Highlights
Multimedia content on the Internet has evolved from simple audio and images to high definition video and highly interactive video games. This content has made its way to mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. The capabilities of these devices have tremendously increased over the years in terms of processing power; in a mobile environment where network connectivity may be changing frequently, it is very difficult to achieve a high Quality of Experience (QoE) when it comes to streaming multimedia content
Multimedia streaming applications make up for varying Quality of Service (QoS) conditions by caching parts of the content opportunistically when possible or scaling the bit-rate and the quality of the audiovisual content in response to network conditions. These mechanisms provide a dampening effect on the varying QoS in wired networks; in wireless networks where the user may be moving and the device may be switching between heterogeneous networks, the QoS variance can be far greater than that found in wired networks even when not considering packet losses and jitter caused by handover events
The proposed model offers a new approach at evaluating the performance of streaming applications in different mobility and network coverage scenarios; there are some limitations that must be highlighted in the interest of further improving the model and understanding its applications
Summary
Multimedia content on the Internet has evolved from simple audio and images to high definition video and highly interactive video games In recent years, this content has made its way to mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Modern mobile devices are capable of streaming multimedia content at very high bitrates, it is often the network’s Quality of Service (QoS) that cannot deliver such content in a consistent and timely fashion. A mathematical solution to the multidimensional Markov model is presented along with examples given to demonstrate the functionality of the model The novelty of this approach lies in the modeling of a multimedia application in a mobile environment from the perspective of the client rather than the perspective of each.
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