P2ProxyLite: Effective video streaming in wireless ad-hoc networks

Abstract

Video streaming over wireless connections remains a challenge today: even when data link and transport layer protocols are tuned to avoid retransmissions and thus reduce the delay and the used bandwidth, the impact on the perceived video quality of imperfect and band-limited radio channels is not negligible. This phenomenon is even more pronounced in multi-hop ad-hoc networks, where the received video quality is further reduced by a cascade of wireless transmissions causing additional delay, losses and errors. We propose in this work to enhance video streaming performance in ad-hoc networks by introducing in mobile nodes an improved frame treatment at the Data Link layer, associated to caching capabilities at the transport layer. This approach allows, on the one side, the forwarding of multimedia packets even in case of residual bit errors, which can be tolerated by robust video decoders, and, on the other side, a path reduction when multiple users are interested in the same content.