Mobile video streaming using location-based network prediction and transparent handover

  • Authors:

  • Kristian Evensen;Andreas Petlund;Haakon Riiser;Paul Vigmostad;Dominik Kaspar;Carsten Griwodz;Pål Halvorsen

  • Affiliations:

  • Simula Research Laboratory, Oslo, Norway;Simula Research Laboratory, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway;Netview Technology AS, Oslo, Norway;Netview Technology AS, Oslo, Norway;Simula Research Laboratory, Oslo, Norway;Simula Research Laboratory, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway;Simula Research Laboratory, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 21st international workshop on Network and operating systems support for digital audio and video
  • Year:
  • 2011

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Abstract

A well known challenge with mobile video streaming is fluctuating bandwidth. As the client devices move in and out of network coverage areas, the users may experience varying signal strengths, competition for the available resources and periods of network outage. These conditions have a significant effect on video quality. In this paper, we present a video streaming solution for roaming clients that is able to compensate for the effects of oscillating bandwidth through bandwidth prediction and video quality scheduling. We combine our existing adaptive segmented HTTP streaming system with 1) an application layer framework for creating transparent multi-link applications, and 2) a location based QoS information system containing GPS coordinates and accompanying bandwidth measurements, populated through crowd-sourcing. Additionally, we use real-time traffic information to improve the prediction by, for example, estimating the length of a commute route. To evaluate our prototype, we performed real-world experiments using a popular tram route in Oslo, Norway. The client connected to multiple networks, and the results show that our solution increases the perceived video quality significantly. Also, we used simulations to evaluate the potential of aggregating bandwidth along the route.