IP Multimedia Research Articles

EdgeMart : A Sustainable Networked OTT Economy on the Wireless Edge for Saving Multimedia IP Bandwidth

With the advent of 5G+ services, it has become increasingly convenient for mobile users to enjoy high-quality multimedia content from CDN driven streaming and catch-up TV services (Netflix, iPlayer) in the (post-) COVID over-the-top (OTT) content rush. To relieve ISP owned fixed-line networks from CDN streamed multimedia traffic, system ideas (e.g., Wi-Stitch in [ 45 ]) have been proposed to (a) leverage 5G services and enable consumers to share cached multimedia content at the edge, and (b) consequently, and more importantly, reduce IP traffic at the core network. Unfortunately, given that contemporary multimedia content might be a monetized asset, these ideas do not take this important fact into account for shared content. We present EdgeMart —a content provider (CP) federated, and computationally sustainable networked (graphical) market economy for paid-sharing of cached licensed (OTT) content with autonomous users of a wireless edge network (WEN). EdgeMart is a unique oligopoly multimedia market (economy) that comprises competing networked sub-markets of non-cooperative content sellers/buyers—each sub-market consisting of a single buyer connected (networked) to only a subset of sellers. We prove that for any WEN-supported supply-demand topology , a pure strategy EdgeMart equilibrium exists that is (a) nearly efficient (in a microeconomic sense) indicating economy sustainability, (b) robust to edge user entry/exit, and (c) can be reached in poly-time (indicating computational sustainability). In addition, we experimentally show that for physical WENs of varying densities, a rationally selfish EdgeMart economy induces similar orders of multimedia IP traffic savings when compared to the ideal (relatively less practical), altruistic , and non-monetized “economy” implemented atop the recently introduced Wi-Stitch WEN-based content trading architecture. Moreover, the EdgeMart concept helps envision a regulated edge economy of opportunistic (pay per licensed file) client services for commercial OTT platforms.

Viewport-Dependent Delivery for Conversational Immersive Video

Real-time immersive video has been an area of interest for the research and standardization community over the past few years. It has gained particular importance in the era of 5G services. 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) Release 17 includes Immersive teleconferencing for Multimedia Telephony services over IP Multimedia System. Viewport-dependent delivery (VDD) is a mechanism for bandwidth savings by assigning more bits to the part of the 360-degree video currently in the viewport and fewer or no bits to the areas of the 360-degree video that a user does not currently view. The technique has been extensively studied in the context of adaptive HTTP streaming of immersive video, where the 360-degree video is pre-encoded in different versions, and the appropriate version is selected and requested by the viewer’s client application, depending on their current viewport orientation. However, conversational video has more stringent latency requirements than HTTP streaming; the time from capture to rendering is in the order of a few milliseconds for a good user experience. Conversational immersive video also allows adapting the encoding during the media delivery session according to the user viewport and network bandwidth characteristics. This paper explores tile-based and viewport region encoding for VDD and how they apply to conversational video. In particular, we explore the challenges related to the absence of periodic intra-coded frames in conversational video. Based on simulation results, we show that VDD methods may not always be a performant alternative to viewport-independent delivery in conversational use cases. We also discuss possible encoder optimization that would improve the VDD performance.

Secure Self Optimizing Software Defined Framework for NB-IoT Towards 5G

Abstract New operating requirements, new architectures and denser topologies are forcing change and driving more complexities. Self-Optimization, Self-configuration and Self-healing are the important objectives of the mobile-SON which is a software platform operating under network management layer. Cost effective with scalability and high bandwidth technology is required for IoT processes of all kind – from connected vehicles to critical industrial processes with automatic configuration. Scale, speed and cost combined parameters arises the new mobile capabilities of automatic operating processes in RAN and across the wider network. Objective of 5G is to reach any end point over any kind of access network with any kind of service i.e. evolved LTE, legacy RATs, fixed access and IoT applications over numerous access technologies. In converged network, common services such as entertaining video, bulk internet access and any managed contents using any access technology or legacy internet access and IP multimedia sub system (IMS) automatically configured in 5G core. In this article self-optimizing framework for ultra IoT is proposed, which represents the M2M communication, network cloud. Impact of network slicing by SDN controller and SON which plays important role in 5G cellular network architecture is discussed. Reviews of different authors are included regarding current use cases conducted in different countries. Next generation data lakes, data analytics on cloud and data warehouse performance depend on the new technology architecture.

PAKET ANAHTARLAMALI AĞLARDA YAVAŞ BAŞLANGIÇ SIKIŞIKLIK METODU PERFORMANS ARTIRIMI İÇİN YENİ BİR METOT

By the introduction of all IP networks with the smart homes, smart phones, car multimedia systems wearable technologies and IP TV’s, the number of internet related devices and the number of applications have increased. This has generated an increased quantity of bandwidth usage in packet switching networks. Therefore, the betterment of the bandwidth usage and the system performance has become more significant. Thus, there is a large number of works in the literature attempting to improve the network performance. For this purpose, generally the modifications of used methods in the network structures are preferred, rather than making major hardware based modifications requiring more financial support. In this work, a novel method called Return Back to threshold (RBT) is proposed to be applied to packet switched networks for a better congestion control.

A New Packet Scheduling Algorithm for Real-Time Multimedia Streaming

Delivering the real-time services over converged networks is a big challenge. Real-time services need to high Quality of Service (QoS). For this purpose, bandwidth reservation and packet prioritization techniques are used. Thus, real-time data packets can be reached to their targets with minimum delays and losses. But, this situation creates unintended consequences for other internet services such as HTTP and FTP. In this case, establishing a balance between the real-time services and the other services is a must. In this study we introduce a new research question: how to transport real-time multimedia IP packets just in time? Just in time means that transportation of the packets neither early, nor late. For this purpose we developed a scheduling/prioritizing algorithm called just in time transport (JITT). Following a cross-layer design approach, JITT controls delay and jitter over whole communication path. We evaluated JITT on the different simulations and one experimental testbed for performance analysis. Our findings support that JITT provides stable delay and low jitter and transports the packets nearly just in time.

A QoS-enhanced intelligent stochastic real-time packet scheduler for multimedia IP traffic

A re-configurable, QoS-enhanced intelligent stochastic real-time optimal fair packet scheduler, QUEST, for IP routers is proposed and investigated. The objective is to maximize the system QoS subject to the constraint that the processor utilization is kept at 100%. All past work on router schedulers for multimedia traffic were of earlier generation, in that they focused on maximizing utilization whereas being QoS-aware but without explicitly maximizing the QoS. Keeping utilization fixed at nearly 100%, QoS is dynamically maximized, thus moving to the next generation. QUEST’s other unique advantages are three-fold. First, it solves the challenging problem of starvation for low priority processes; second, it solves the major bottleneck of Earliest Deadline First scheduler’s failure at heavy traffic loads. Finally, QUEST offers the benefit of arbitrarily pre-programming the process utilization ratio. Three classes of multimedia IP traffic, namely, VoIP, IPTV and HTTP have been considered. Two most important QoS metrics, namely, packet loss rate (PLR) and mean waiting time, are addressed. All claims are supported by discrete event and Monte Carlo simulations. The proposed scheduler outperforms benchmark schedulers and offers 37% improvement in packet loss rate and 23% improvement in mean waiting time over the best competing current scheduler Accuracy-aware EDF. The proposed scheduler was validated in a test-bed platform of a NetFPGA® router and results were observed with Paessler® PRTG network monitor.

Bayesian Hierarchical Regression Models for QoE Estimation and Prediction in Audiovisual Communications

This paper presents a trial of establishing a framework for Bayesian statistical modeling of quality of experience (QoE) estimation and prediction in multimedia IP communications. As an example, we take a bandwidth guaranteed interactive audiovisual communication system with a QoE enhancement mechanism. By Bayesian statistical analysis, we demonstrate how QoE is affected by factors of the channel bandwidth, contents of tasks, customization of playout buffering control for QoE enhancement, users' individualities, and gender. Adopting a latent variable approach, we build Bayesian regression models with covariates of the factors and random effect terms having hierarchical priors for the users' attributes. We estimate the posterior probabilities of parameters in the models by performing Markov chain Monte Carlo simulations with WinBUGS. From among the models, we select the most plausible one and explore the sensitivity to priors. We then evaluate the QoE measure, which is the posterior mean of overall satisfaction measured as five-point scores, and examine the effects of the factors on the QoE through odds ratios. Also, the Bayesian model makes predictions of score frequencies and compares them with measured ones to reveal high accuracy of the prediction. In addition, a cross-validatory approach to the model checking is taken for investigating the adequacy of the model; the posterior predictive p-values of a discrepancy function of the model indicate that the model is satisfactory.

Overload management with regard to fairness in session initiation protocol networks by holonic multiagent systems

SummarySession initiation protocol (SIP) is a widely used standard protocol for multimedia applications and IP multimedia subsystems. Internet protocol multimedia subsystem was introduced by the 3GGP signaling foundation as part of a set of next generation network architectures. Despite having useful practical features, SIP does not have suitable mechanisms to handle overload. This challenge creates a sharp drop in quality of service for next generation network users. Because a distributed SIP network is a complex system composed of subsystems interacting with one another, multiagent system is an appropriate method to model network interactions and to solve overload in SIP networks. In this paper, holonic organization is applied to reduce the multiagent system complexity in modeling a large SIP network. Holonic organization is a hierarchical structure in which each holon covers a geographical area of the SIP network at the first level. At the second level, upper‐level holons control the first‐level holons, and so on. Overload control is achieved by communication and the exchange of knowledge between the intelligent holons. Experimental results show that the proposed method prevents overload in the SIP network. The method also increases total throughput, reduces delay, and considers fairness in the SIP network.

Catch-up TV analytics: statistical characterization and consumption patterns identification on a production service

Multimedia IP Television services, such as on-demand Catch-up TV, are in an active migration process towards Over-The-Top (OTT) delivery using state-of-the-art Content Delivery Networks (CDNs). Maintaining the same Quality-of-Experience (QoE) of managed IPTV networks is challenging and requires a thorough understanding of users’ behaviors and content demand characteristics. This article leverages Catch-up TV usage logs obtained from a Pay-TV operator’s live production IPTV service containing over 1 million subscribers to characterize and extract insights from service utilization at a scale and scope not yet addressed in the literature. A detailed analysis on the characteristics of users’ viewings is performed, with a study of when, where, and how often users access the service, along with how they behave during each viewing session. The results show that Catch-up TV consumption exhibits very high levels of utilization throughout the day, and is heavily polarized towards specific genres, recently aired programs, and content broadcasted during prime-time. The superstar effect is notorious. This analysis is complemented by a service optimization perspective, which shows that large gains are achievable by caching popular programs, and by loading content in advance to users’ Set-Top-Boxes (STBs). This comprehensive research study is supplemented by detailed statistical information tables, which highlight the feasibility of efficiently migrating Catch-up TV services to OTT-scenarios, and provide the foundations for future works able to explore these results.

Design and Implementation of Information Push Service Platform in Mobile Intelligent District Based on JXTA

With the rapid development of communication technology and the growth of mobile devices, the development of intelligent district network will be centered on IP multimedia which integrates the whole business. Meanwhile, information overload becomes a new problem. A reasonable network structure with low cost and stable performance, providing accurate information access for intelligent district users, becomes the focus of current research. This paper proposes a network topology for mobile intelligent district based on JXTA, designing and implementing information push service platform, which not only satisfies the network demand of intelligent district, but also satisfies users with a real time, accurate and stable information access.

Label switched protocol routing with guaranteed bandwidth and end to end path delay in MPLS networks

Rapid growth of multimedia applications has caused a tremendous impact on how people communicate. Next generation networks (NGN) have been proposed to support newly emerged multimedia IP based applications such as voice over IP (VOIP), video on-demand (VOD), and IPTV using a core IP backbone. The development of technologies like Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) has laid the foundation for NGN to support multimedia applications like Voice over IP. One of the important concepts in MPLS Traffic Engineering (TE) is Label Switched Path (LSP) routing. The objective of the routing algorithm is to increase the number of accepted request while satisfying Quality of Service (QoS) constraints. Although much work has been done on laying MPLS paths to optimize performance, most of them have focused on satisfying bandwidth requirements. Relatively little research has been done on laying paths with both bandwidth and delay constraints. In this paper, we present a new bandwidth and end to end delay (bandwidth-delay) constrained routing algorithm which uses data of the ingress–egress node pairs in the network. In this algorithm we use LR-Servers theory to compute path delay. We name the proposed algorithm as Minimum Delay and Maximum Flow (MDMF). We do extensive simulations to evaluate the performance of MDMF algorithm. In addition, we compare the performance of MDMF against some previous related works such as MHA, WSP, MIRA, BCRA, MIRAD, BGDG, BGLC, and SAMCRA. The simulation results show that MDMF rivals them in terms of flow management and outperform them in terms of end to end delay management, maximum flow and number of accepted request (call blocking ratio).

Automated Service Management for Semantic IP Multimedia System [S-IMS

Next Generation Network (NGN) has drawn great attention by the researchers and telecommunication industries as the future generation in the communication technologies and services. The interest covers all aspects on NGN from the global standards, architecture and services. The management of services provided in the NGN environment has posed great challenges due to the heterogeneity of the service protocols, service requirements and specifications and service functionalities. The research proposes enhancement of the automated service management through embedding the semantic service descriptions that can be referenced to the service ontology for service creation and management into the Next Generation Network, which will become Semantic Next Generation Network (SNGN).

Repairability Smackdown: How Do the Latest Tablet Models Stack Up?

Tablets are the latest craze in the consumer electronics (CE) world. New models are hitting the shelves every few months, many featuring new screen and speaker technologies and the latest in low-power, high-performance mobile CPU with the latest models beginning to feature GPU and specialized multimedia IP cores.

Hybrid FEC/MDC Based Loss Recovery in Multimedia IP Networks

Hybrid FEC/MDC Based Loss Recovery in Multimedia IP Networks

Towards Building Semantic Next Generation Network – A Preliminary Study

Next Generation Network has drawn great attention by the researchers and telecommunication industries as the future generation in the communication technologies and services. The interest covers all aspects on NGN from the global standards, architecture and services. The management of services provided in the NGN environment has posed great challenges due to the heterogeneity of the service protocols, service requirements and specifications and service functionalities. The recent effort in the autonomics of service management is the initial effort towards achieving this paper. The paper proposes enhancement of the automated service management through embedding the semantic service descriptions that can be referenced to the service ontology for service creation and management. IMS (IP Multimedia System) is used as the core communication platform as it provides various services running on different protocols besides the common internet protocols and web services.

Multimedia IP architecture trends in the mobile multimedia consumer device

A dedicated media processor is used in many mobile consumer devices to accelerate video, image, graphics, and display processing. Increased demand for higher pixel resolution, higher quality image and video processing, more graphics performance necessitates dramatically increased signal processing capabilities. To provide the increased performance at acceptable cost and power requires redesign of the traditional architecture. By wisely partitioning algorithms across programmable and fixed-function blocks, the performance goals can be met while still maintaining flexibility for new feature requirements and new standards. For a better than acceptable user experience and playback time, all IPs (display, graphics, video, and imaging) have to be optimized as an “end to end” system. In this paper, an overview of the future trends of multimedia IP processor architectures is provided that describes the implications on system architecture, power, and performance.

Network Discovery Protocol LLDP and LLDP-MED

Various devices are connected in network to each other. It becomes a tedious task to keep track of all the devices for network administrator. Checking links physically are also not a good option for network administrator. In case of network consisting of devices from same vendors it may becomes possible to keep track of devices and manage network, but in multi vendor scenario it becomes more difficult. Solution to this is use of Network Discovery Protocol. Network discovery protocol help administrator to find devices connected over network but also helps to find information related to devices. Various vendors have designed their own proprietary discovery protocols, but they are not interoperable in case of devices from different vendors. Here comes the Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) which is IEEE 802.3ab standard for network discovery over link layer. Link Layer Discovery Protocol-Media Endpoint Discovery (LLDP-MED) is extension to LLDP which is specially designed for multimedia devices and IP Phones, Video Phones etc. LLDP and LLDP-MED helps to achieve discovery in multi-vendor environment also. Here this paper discusses the need, basics and implementation of LLDP and LLDP-MED over a network switch.

IMS-based presence service with enhanced scalability and guaranteed QoS for interdomain enterprise mobility

Enterprise mobility and IP multimedia system corporate services are becoming more relevant; in particular, the IMS-based presence service is starting to provide different kinds of seamlessly mobile services, with context awareness in a wide range of enterprise-deployment scenarios. However, the deployment of presence-based enterprise services in wide and heterogeneous wireless networks still faces several challenges. First of all, scalability and differentiated quality are considered crucial, especially under heavy traffic conditions and when dealing with inter-domain mobility scenarios. This article presents an overview of very recent research contributions about the standard IMS presence service and some novel proposals for scalability and quality optimization. In addition, we propose a novel presence service solution that presents three original extensions for scalability and quality: a federated model to optimize inter-domain distribution of notification messages through locality-based aggregation, a proposal for differentiated quality levels, and an extension of client-side buffering for reliable delivery of presence messages, even during user roaming. The prototype of the enhanced presence service has been deployed and validated by obtaining performance results of improved scalability in terms of CPU and memory usage in infrastructure nodes and message traffic. The prototype is openly available to the IMS community for possible refinement and extension.

PSTN migration using IMS

The IP Multimedia System (IMS) is being adopted globally as the standard architecture for next-generation voice and multimedia services. As a result, many operators plan to use IMS and its inherent benefits for public switched telephone network (PSTN) migration, with a goal of eventual elimination of the traditional PSTN. Initial IMS deployments utilize a Telecommunication and Internet converged Services and Protocols for Advanced Networking (TISPAN) IMS-based PSTN emulation subsystem (PES) architecture in which H.248 is used as the control protocol in the access node and is converted to Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) in the IMS core. However, as the adoption of IMS increases and standards become more mature, many operators plan to eliminate H.248 interim architectures and evolve to a more efficient and scaleable SIP-based end-to-end solution. There are several architectural choices the operator has to make in planning the migration to IMS. First, a customer premises equipment (CPE)-based, network-based, or mixed approach can be adopted for PSTN migration. Second, for network-based PSTN migration, the PSTN line termination can be standalone in a line access gateway (LAG) or integrated into a next-generation multi-service access node (MSAN). In addition, there are implementation choices related to the type of SIP endpoint and services supported. This paper will address these architectural and implementation options and describe associated service examples.

IP MULTIMEDIA SUBSYSTEM - Experience with an IP Multimedia System Trial for PSTN Migration

In this article, we share our experience of a trial that attempted to gain practical experience in migrating telephony services from the public service telephone network (PSTN) to the IP multimedia system (IMS) domain. We point out some key challenges on the migration path to IMS and identify many issues for successful service deployment in an IMS-based next generation network. Some regulatory concerns and non-technical issues also are addressed.