XMAS: An Efficient Mobile Adaptive Streaming Scheme Based on Traffic Shaping

Abstract

Adaptive video streaming can provide adequate Quality of Experience by dynamically adjusting video rates in responding to fluctuating service conditions. However, adaptive video streaming shows dismal performances in wireless networks where several players share a wireless bottleneck link. This paper proposes a novel video rate selection scheme called XMAS for efficient video streaming in wireless networks. XMAS consists of two components: an available bandwidth estimation part and a video rate selection part. To redress the problem of inaccurate bandwidth estimation due to peculiar on-off transmission patterns of mobile video streaming, we devised a novel client-based traffic shaping scheme that effectively throttles server's packet transmission. Equipped with accurate bandwidth estimates, XMAS determines target transmission rates considering playback buffer levels. We implemented XMAS on Linux and performed rigorous experiments to analyze its behavior and performance. Our performance results showed that XMAS achieves up to 20% increase in average video rates while reducing rebuffer rates significantly.