Video Streaming In Networks Research Articles

An Exploration-driven Reinforcement Learning Model for Video Streaming Scheduling in 5G-Powered Drone

In the process of wireless network video streaming, especially in more complex scenarios (such as video transmission of 5G-powered drones), analyzing the quality of experience (QoE) of the video streaming is a very crucial task. Thus attention should be paid to the dynamic interaction between QoE indicators including buffer starvation probability and traffic load. This paper proposes a video streaming scheduling model based on reinforcement learning. By learning the correlation between user behavior and traffic patterns, a series of resource allocation strategies that optimize QoE indicators are obtained. Since there is a certain degree of randomness in the network status at each moment in the transmission process, the model introduces exploration rewards to solve the noise problem of random environments. At the same time, this mechanism enables the model to fully explore the environment even when the reward is sparse, so as to obtain an effective scheduling strategy. Simulation experiments have proved that our model can improve the long-term QoE of video streaming in different network environments.

Quality-Aware Video Streaming for Green Cellular Networks With Hybrid Energy Sources

Mobile video traffic has experienced explosive growth in recent years due to the rapid development of mobile intelligent terminals and cellular communication technologies. The rapid growth of mobile video traffic has brought significant energy expenditure for mobile network operators. To reduce the energy expenditure, one promising solution is to exploit renewable energy harvested from surrounding environments for cellular traffic delivery. In this article, we investigate mobile video streaming in green cellular networks with hybrid energy sources, i.e., grid energy and ambient energy, to optimize both video quality and energy expenditure. Specifically, we formulate a stochastic optimization problem to maximize the long-term time-averaged network service utility, which is the difference of video quality and energy expenditure. The problem formulation takes the following factors into account: time-varying grid electricity price, energy harvesting process, and different time scales of rate adaptation (RA), resource management, and electricity price fluctuation. We exploit Lyapunov optimization framework to decompose the problem into three subproblems: 1) RA subproblem; 2) battery energy management subproblem; and 3) joint power control and subchannel assignment subproblem. We propose an efficient online green video streaming algorithm to solve these subproblems. We analyze the stability of the proposed algorithm with respect to lengths of energy queue and user request queues. Extensive simulations are conducted and the results validate the efficiency of the proposed algorithm.

Video Caching, Analytics, and Delivery at the Wireless Edge: A Survey and Future Directions

Future wireless networks will provide high-bandwidth, low-latency, and ultra-reliable Internet connectivity to meet the requirements of different applications, ranging from virtual reality to the Internet of Things. To this aim, edge caching, computing, and communication (edge-C3) have emerged to bring network resources (i.e., bandwidth, storage, and computing) closer to end users. Edge-C3 improves the network resource utilization as well as the quality of experience (QoE) of end users. Recently, several video-oriented mobile applications (e.g., live content sharing, gaming, and augmented reality) have leveraged edge-C3 in diverse scenarios involving video streaming in both the downlink and the uplink. Hence, a large number of recent works have studied the implications of video analysis and streaming through edge-C3. This article presents an in-depth survey on video edge-C3 challenges and state-of-the-art solutions in next-generation wireless and mobile networks. Specifically, it includes: a tutorial on video streaming in mobile networks (e.g., video encoding and adaptive bit-rate streaming); an overview of mobile network architectures, enabling technologies, and applications for video edge-C3; video edge computing and analytics in uplink scenarios (e.g., architectures, analytics, and applications); and video edge caching, computing and communication methods in downlink scenarios (e.g., collaborative, popularity-based, and context-aware). A new taxonomy for video edge-C3 is proposed and the major contributions of recent studies are first highlighted and then systematically compared. Finally, several open problems and key challenges for future research are outlined.

Adaptive Video Streaming for Massive MIMO Networks via Approximate MDP and Reinforcement Learning

The scheduling of downlink video streaming in a massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) network is considered in this paper, where active users arrive randomly to request video contents of a finite playback duration via their service base stations (BSs). Each video content consisting of a sequence of segments can be transmitted to the requesting users with variable video bitrates. We formulate the joint control of transmitted segment number, frame allocation and segment bitrate in all the super frames (each comprising multiple frames) as an infinite-horizon Markov decision process (MDP). The maximization objective is a discounted measurement of the average Quality of Experience (QoE). Since there is no efficient method for scheduling design with random user arrivals and departures in the existing literature, a novel approximate MDP method is proposed to obtain a low-complexity scheduling policy, where a lower bound on its performance is derived. Specifically, we first introduce a baseline policy and derive its asymptotic value function. One-step policy iteration is then applied to improve this value function, yielding the mentioned low-complexity policy. Finally, we propose a novel and efficient reinforcement learning (RL) algorithm to evaluate the value function when the prior knowledge on user arrival intensity is absent.

Predicting the Session of an P2P IPTV User through Support Vector Regression (SVR)

Scalability and ease of implementation make Peer-to-Peer (P2P) infrastructure an attractive option for live video streaming. Peer end-users or peers in these networks have extremely complex features and exhibit unpredictable behavior, i.e. any peer may join or exit the network without prior notice. Peers' dynamics is considered one of the key problems impacting the Quality of Service (QoS) of the P2P based IPTV services. Since, peer dynamics results in video disruption to consumer peers, for smooth video distribution, stable peer identification and selection is essential. Many research works have been conducted on stable peer identification using classical statistical methods. In this paper, a model based on machine learning is proposed in order to predict the length of a user session on entering the network. This prediction can be utilized in topology management such as offloading the departing peer before its exit. Consequently, this will help peers to select stable provider peers, which are the ones with longer session duration. Furthermore, it will also enable service providers to identify stable peers in a live video streaming network. Results indicate that the SVR based model performance is superior to an existing Bayesian network model.

Distributed mitigation of content pollution in peer‐to‐peer video streaming networks

Video streaming has become increasingly popular in the Internet. Frequently, video transmissions are based on peer-to-peer networks, in which peers running on end-user hosts transmit data among themselves. An important security vulnerability of this strategy is that content can be easily altered by malicious users. Thus, it becomes essential to diagnose and fight content pollution in these systems. In this work, the authors present a novel strategy that relies on comparison-based diagnosis to mitigate content pollution in live video streaming peer-to-peer networks. This strategy is fully distributed and effectively combats the dissemination of content pollution. In the strategy, peers independently identify and avoid polluters. The solution works on top of the scalable overlay network Fireflies. Experimental results are presented showing the effectiveness and the low overhead of the solution. In particular, the strategy was able to significantly reduce content pollution propagation in diverse network configurations.

Multi-Tier Caching and Resource Sharing for Video Streaming in 5G Ultra-Dense Networks

In this letter, we formulate a multi-tier caching and resource sharing (CRS) optimization problem for a high video streaming performance in 5G ultra-dense networks. Particularly, in user tier, the optimal sets of spectrum owning users (SUs) with available downlink resources, caching users (CUs) with cached video versions, and normal users (NUs) requesting the video versions are tripartite for video streaming over device-to-device (D2D) communications. In femto tier, the optimal caching strategy is found to indicate which video versions and where to cache them in the femtocell base station (FBSs). By cooperating with the video versions cached in macro tier, i.e., macro base station (MBS), the mobile users (MUs) can receive the video versions from D2D communications, FBSs, and MBS flexibly. The objective of the CRS solution is to maximize the video playback quality, while saving the caching storage of FBSs and satisfying a given throughput required by MUs and a given target signal to interference plus noise ratio of SUs.

Optimal Power and Bandwidth Allocation for Multiuser Video Streaming in UAV Relay Networks

We all have encountered unsatisfactory video viewing experience with mobile devices in hot spot areas where a crowd of people are demanding video streaming simultaneously. One possible solution to relieve the problem is to use the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) as a relay to improve the quality-of-experience (QoE). In this paper, we focus on the allocation of bandwidth and transmission power for multiuser video streaming in UAV relay networks. Our goal is to maximize the total long-term QoE of users, which are determined by the freezing time and the bit rate of video. We employ the Lyapunov optimization theory to transform the original problem with long-term average form into the drift-plus-penalty problem, and propose a decentralized allocation scheme using alternative ascending clock auction to derive the optimal solution. Simulations are conducted to demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method.

Modeling QoE for Buffered Video Streaming in Interference-Limited Cellular Networks

Mobile networks have to cope with an ever increasing demand for video streaming, an application that imposes high quality requirements for user satisfaction. In this paper, we present an analytical model to calculate two important quality measures for streaming traffic, namely the video startup delay distribution and the buffer starvation probability. The queuing-theoretic model differs from related work by incorporating data flow dynamics of the considered cell, as well as the dynamics of fluctuating interference from neighboring cells, with the goal of accurately representing a multi-cellular environment. In this regard, we propose a finite-volume method to approximate the solution of the involved system of partial differential equations, where other approaches from comparable work were faced with numerical problems. We also evaluate two simplified versions of the model, where only the interference dynamics or all coupling terms are omitted, respectively. The model allows us to study the impact of different parameters on buffered video streaming performance. Additionally, we propose a user-centric metric to measure quality of experience (QoE). To the best of our knowledge, our approach is novel and has not been covered by comparable work. The presented results can help to design future cellular networks with enhanced video streaming experience.

Adaptive Bitrate Video Streaming in Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access Networks

Facing the ever-increasing demand for high quality video streaming and the dramatic variations of wireless network environment, adaptive bitrate video streaming (ABS) emerges as a prominent video quality adaptation technique in improving users’ quality of experience (QoE). Reinforcement learning (RL)-based ABS and network-assisted ABS can improve users’ QoE through resource utilization efficiency enhancement. However, limited network capacity is still the bottleneck of QoE improvement. Considering the potential capacity gain of non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA), we study network-assisted ABS in NOMA networks. Based on a synchronous video streaming model and the knowledge of channel state information for next segment, a joint optimization problem of resource allocation and bitrate adaptation is formulated to maximize users’ QoE and minimize energy consumption. The original problem is NP-hard and intractable due to the interference coordination problem introduced by NOMA and the multi-slot sum rate constraint. We decompose the original problem into the subproblem of joint subchannel assignment and power allocation (JSAPA), and the subproblem of bitrate adaptation (BA) with Lagrange relaxation method. A joint resource allocation and bitrate adaptation (JRABA) algorithm is further proposed to solve the JSAPA and BA subproblems iteratively. Specifically, the JSAPA subproblem is solved by an extended Gale-Shapley matching algorithm and differ of convex (DC) programming method iteratively. For the BA subproblem, appropriate video bitrate is explored with subgradient method. Numerical results validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm and reveal that network-assisted ABS in NOMA networks benefits users in achieving higher QoE with less energy consumption, especially when radio resources are insufficient or with large segment size.

Quality of experience prediction model for video streaming in SDN networks

To evaluate the network performance, network operators rely on quality of service. This measure has shown limits and great deal of effort has been put into putting in place a new metric that more accurately reflects the quality of service offered. This measure is known as Quality of Experience (QoE). QoE reflects the user's satisfaction for a service. Today, evaluating the QoE has become paramount for service providers and content providers. This necessity pushed us to innovate and design new methods to estimate the QoE. This paper comprises two parts: the first part defines our subjective method which evaluates the video quality over SDN networks. In the second part we try to cover the impairments of subjective methods by a novel method that predicts the QoE (MOS) based on machine learning, so we employ ML-classifiers, then we calculate the performance metrics to measure the performance of each algorithm to deduce the best algorithm.

Dynamic Resource Allocation for Scalable Video Streaming in OFDMA Wireless Networks

Mobile video streaming is a successful example of Cyber-Physical-Social Systems (CPSS). How to schedule network resources and provide better mobile video streaming services for mobile users are very important. Scalable video streaming is regarded as a promising technology in wireless networks where the cognitive femtocells are overlaid within the coverage area of a macrocell network. In this paper, we study dynamic resource allocation for scalable video streaming over cache-enabled wireless networks with time-varying channel conditions. We formulate the scalable video streaming problem as a stochastic optimization problem which aims at maximizing the time-averaged system utility subject to the time-averaged video cache constraint at the server and the cross-tier interference constraint on the primary user under the sparse deployment scenario of femtocells. By employing the Lyapunov optimization theory, we design a dynamic cache and resource allocation (DCRA) algorithm to solve this problem. Furthermore, the problem is decomposed into three subproblems, i.e., video layer selection, cache placement, and wireless resource allocation. Via solving these subproblems, we derive the video layer selection and cache placement strategies, and a wireless resource allocation algorithm to manage the cross-tier interference. Simulation results demonstrate the advantages of the proposed DCRA for streaming scalable video over time-varying wireless networks.

Quality of experience prediction model for video streaming in SDN networks

Quality of experience prediction model for video streaming in SDN networks

Perceptual QoE-Optimal Resource Allocation for Adaptive Video Streaming

Video streaming in mobile environments has always been challenging due to various factors. The time-varying wireless channel, limited and shared transmission resources, fluctuating network conditions between the video server and the end user etc. greatly affect the timely delivery of videos. Given these factors, it is important that the wireless networks perform optimal allocation of resources and cater to the demands of the video streaming users without degrading their quality-of-experience (QoE). Modeling streaming QoE as perceived subjectively by the users is non-trivial, and in general a complex task, as it is continuous, dynamic, and time-varying in nature. The continuous perceptual QoE degradation due to network induced artifacts such as time-varying video quality and rebuffering events has not been considered in the literature for resource allocation (RA). In this paper, we propose Video Quality Aware Resource Allocation (ViQARA), a perceptual QoE based RA algorithm for video streaming in cellular networks. ViQARA leverages the strength of the latest continuous QoE models and integrates it with the generalized $\alpha $ -fair strategy for RA. Through extensive simulations, we demonstrate that ViQARA can provide significant improvement in the users perceptual QoE as well as a remarkable reduction in the number of rebufferings when compared to existing throughput based RA methods. The proposed algorithm is also shown to provide better QoE optimization of the available resources in general, and especially so when the cellular network is resource constrained and/or experiences large packet delays.

QoE-Driven Transmission-Aware Cache Placement and Cooperative Beamforming Design in Cloud-RANs

Pre-caching popular videos at base stations (BSs) is a cost-effective way to significantly alleviate the backhaul pressure. With the video caching, the cache placement and the transmission strategy are intertwined with each other and jointly affect the system performance. Furthermore, the cache placement is updated in a much longer timescale than the transmission strategy. In this paper, the long-term transmission-aware cache placement and the short-term transmission strategy are designed to enhance the quality of experience (QoE) for the video streaming in cloud radio access networks (cloud-RANs). Specifically, consider a cache-enabled cloud-RAN, video contents are cached at BSs, and user requests are cooperatively satisfied by multiple BSs via the cooperative beamforming. To improve the weighted sum of users’ QoE, the long-term transmission-aware caching problem in the caching stage and the short-term transmission problem in the delivery stage are respectively formulated, taking into account the backhaul capacity constraint, the transmission power constraint, and the storage size constraint. For the caching problem, the sample average approach is first used to approximate the long-term average QoE value. Then, cache placement strategies are devised in both centralized and distributed manner. For the transmission problem, the full-cooperative beamforming scheme is studied with the optimized cache placement, and an iterative algorithm is proposed. Simulation results show that our proposed transmission-aware cache placement and transmission strategies can achieve higher QoE performance than other cache placement and transmission strategies.

Stochastic QoE-aware optimization of multisource multimedia content delivery for mobile cloud

The increasing popularity of mobile video streaming in wireless networks has stimulated growing demands for efficient video streaming services. However, due to the time-varying throughput and user mobility, it is still difficult to provide high quality video services for mobile users. Our proposed optimization method considers key factors such as video quality, bitrate level, and quality variations to enhance quality of experience over wireless networks. The mobile network and device parameters are estimated in order to deliver the best quality video for the mobile user. We develop a rate adaptation algorithm using Lyapunov optimization for multi-source multimedia content delivery to minimize the video rate switches and provide higher video quality. The multi-source manager algorithm is developed to select the best stream based on the path quality for each path. The node joining and cluster head election mechanism update the node information. As the proposed approach selects the optimal path, it also achieves fairness and stability among clients. The quality of experience feature metrics like bitrate level, rebuffering events, and bitrate switch frequency are employed to assess video quality. We also employ objective video quality assessment methods like VQM, MS-SSIM, and SSIMplus for video quality measurement closer to human visual assessment. Numerical results show the effectiveness of the proposed method as compared to the existing state-of-the-art methods in providing quality of experience and bandwidth utilization.

Adaptive Bitrate Video Caching and Processing in Mobile-Edge Computing Networks

Mobile-Edge Computing (MEC) is a promising paradigm that provides storage and computation resources at the network edge in order to support low-latency and computation-intensive mobile applications. In this article, we propose a joint collaborative caching and processing framework that supports Adaptive Bitrate (ABR)-video streaming in MEC networks. We formulate an Integer Linear Program (ILP) that determines the placement of video variants in the caches and the scheduling of video requests to the cache servers so as to minimize the expected delay cost of video retrieval. The considered problem is challenging due to its NP-completeness and to the lack of a-priori knowledge about video request arrivals. Our approach decomposes the original problem into a cache placement problem and a video request scheduling problem while preserving the interplay between the two. We then propose practically efficient solutions, including: (i) a novel heuristic ABR-aware proactive cache placement algorithm when video popularity is available, and (ii) an online low-complexity video request scheduling algorithm that performs very closely to the optimal solution. Simulation results show that our proposed solutions achieve significant increase in terms of cache hit ratio and decrease in backhaul traffic and content access delay compared to the traditional approaches.

Improving Power Efficiency for Online Video Streaming Service: A Self-Adaptive Approach

The video streaming technique and 4G LTE networks have been developing at a high speed, while the advancement of the battery technology is relatively slow. A lot of efforts have been made on understanding the power consumption in general 4G LTE networks, while little attention has been focused on reducing the power consumption of mobile devices for online video streaming in 4G LTE networks. In this paper, we attempt to develop efficient optimization techniques to address this problem. It is an important and also interesting problem, while there are many challenges needing to be alleviated (e.g., the uncertainty of users’ behavior modes). To attack the challenges, we suggest a self-adaptive method that can allow us to adjust various parameters dynamically and efficiently, achieving a relatively small energy consumption. We give the rigorous theoretical analysis for the proposed method, and conduct the empirical study to validate its effectiveness.

Buffer-Aware Streaming in Small-Scale Wireless Networks: A Deep Reinforcement Learning Approach

Buffer-aware video streaming, which exploits the available storage space in user device to store the prefetched video data in good channels for video data use in poor channels, has been proved to have the potential to reduce the impact of fluctuating wireless channels on user-perceived video performance. However, in practical wireless networks, due to the unknown channel state and video rate, providing buffer-aware video streaming service to wireless user is a challenging problem. In this paper, with the aim to design an autonomous wireless video streaming system, we apply the deep reinforcement learning approach to dynamic resource optimization for wireless buffer-aware video streaming under unknown channel state and video rate. Specifically, we define a reward function for buffer-aware video streaming as the effective video streaming time when neither video-playback overflow nor video-playback underflow occurs. We propose a Markov decision process based problem formulation of the joint bandwidth allocation and buffer management for maximizing the effective video streaming time of all users. The optimal bandwidth allocation and buffer management policy is learned from training a deep neural network based on a deep reinforcement learning algorithm. We simulate the proposed algorithm in Tensorflow. Simulation results verify that the proposed deep reinforcement learning approach is effective for buffer-aware video streaming in wireless networks.

An enhanced heuristic XoR network coding-based method for high quality video streaming over VANETs.

One of the most important challenges in live video streaming in mobile vehicular networks is the optimal use of broadband and point-to-point packet delay. Recent studies show that the sheer use of frames flow compression methods (such as H.264 or HEVC) and the proper communication overlay, such as Peer-to-Peer (P2P), has no absolute influence on increasing the quality of received video in VANET networks. Therefore, the use of an appropriate data exchange method, such as network coding, seems to be of great importance. Compared to Random Network Coding (RNC), XoR Network Coding (XNC) method has the least computational load for the network which is an important factor in optimal use of limited energy of nodes in a wireless network. The basic problem in XNC is that when a node is supposed to combine several frames and transmit them through an encoded frame, how this combination could be made to enable other nodes of the network to be broadcasted through receiving this packet and how can the available packets in their buffers decode as well as extract the largest number of frames in order to experience a higher video quality. To fulfil this aim, an encoding intelligent method is required which is based on the buffers’ status of neighbours. In the proposed method in this article, the best frame combination is reached through buffers status of neighbours and AHP methods or AHP-TOPSIS methods, and the encoded frames are broadcasted through XNC. Simulation results show that due to the reduction in number of transmitted packets in the network, parameters such as congestion and point-to-point delay are significantly reduced and vehicles experience a higher video quality compared with other similar methods.