Video quality adaptation scheme for improving QoE in HTTP adaptive streaming

Abstract

HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) adaptive streaming is easy to configure in existing Internet infrastructure. Also, it is typically granted traversal of firewalls and NAT (Network Address Translator). Because of these advantages, HTTP adaptive streaming has been the subject of much attention. However, because conventional video quality adaptation schemes based on bandwidth measurement are too aggressive to respond to short-term network bandwidth variation, frequent changes of video quality occur. Also, because conventional schemes based on bandwidth measurement do not reflect buffer occupancy, buffer underflow that freezes playback occurs. Due to these problems, conventional schemes can hardly guarantee the appropriate level of QoE (Quality of Experience) in HTTP adaptive streaming. In this paper, we propose a client-side video quality adaptation scheme for improving the QoE of HTTP adaptive streaming. To provide seamless and smooth video streaming, the proposed scheme adapts video quality by considering both network bandwidth variation and buffer occupancy of client. We evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme in the ns-3 (Network Simulator-3). Simulation results show that the proposed scheme provides a better QoE than conventional video quality adaptation schemes.