Robust Video Streaming over Wireless In-Home Networks

Abstract

More and more consumer devices in future homes will be inter-connected via wireless networks. However, due to their limited and fluctuating bandwidth and susceptibility to interference, the transport of content with real-time characteristics, such as video, is a problem. This paper presents a Quality-of-Service (QoS) architecture framework to achieve smooth, undisturbed video streaming over wireless networks, where still sufficient output quality is achieved even when the network conditions deteriorate. Our solution combines two techniques to address wireless video streaming issues, namely scalable video coding and network adaptation. The feasibility of our framework is proven by implementing receiving and decoding Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR)-scalable video streams on a resource-constrained consumer terminal platform. Extensive visual experiments and numerical measurements show that it is possible to achieve smooth output video, even with heavy interference from other electronic devices.