Low latency and efficient packet scheduling for streaming applications

Abstract

Adequate bandwidth allocations and strict delay requirements are critical for real time applications. Packet scheduling algorithms like class based queue (CBQ), nested deficit round robin (nested-DRR) are designed to ensure the bandwidth reservation function. However, they might cause unsteady packet latencies and introduce extra application handling overhead, such as allocating a large buffer for playing the media stream. High and unstable latency of packets might jeopardize the corresponding quality of service since real-time applications prefer low playback latency. Existing scheduling algorithms which keep latency of packets stable require knowing the details of individual flows. GPS (general processor sharing)-like algorithms does not consider the real behavior of a stream. A real stream is not perfectly smooth after forwarding by the routers. GPS-like algorithms introduces extra delay on the stream which is not perfectly smooth. This thesis presents an algorithm which provides low latency and efficient packet scheduling service for streaming applications called LLEPS.