Multi-interface Extension to a Scalable Video Streaming Architecture

Abstract

Video service adaptation capabilities are essential for the efficient utilization of the network resources in heterogeneous multi-access environments and ensuring sufficient perceived service quality for the end users. Multihoming is seen as one important enabler for high-quality and reliable video streaming services and it is expected to be supported extensively in the future Internet. Already today, terminal devices are equipped with multiple network interfaces and able to use them simultaneously. In the future, mobile multimedia services such as video streaming can maximize the user experienced quality by utilizing the available network resources, concurrently. However, intelligent decision-making as well as dynamic mapping of traffic to network interfaces are required for optimal operation. In this paper, we introduce an overall architecture for adaptive video streaming exploiting the novel scalable video coding technology. We also propose a multi-interface streaming extension to the architecture to allow dynamic and concurrent usage of the available access networks in the video service delivery. We present a prototype implementation of the proposed multi-interface video streaming system and test its operation in the presence of network impairments in an experimental evaluation.