Resource allocation for downlink multiuser video transmission over wireless lossy networks

Demand for multimedia services, such as video streaming over wireless networks, has grown dramatically in recent years. The downlink transmission of multiple video sequences to multiple users over a shared resource-limited wireless channel, however, is a daunting task. Among the many challenges in this area are the time-varying channel conditions, limited available resources, such as bandwidth and power, and the different transmission requirements of different video content. This work takes into account the time-varying nature of the wireless channels, as well as the importance of individual video packets, to develop a cross-layer resource allocation and packet scheduling scheme for multiuser video streaming over lossy wireless packet access networks. Assuming that accurate channel feedback is not available at the scheduler, random channel losses combined with complex error concealment at the receiver make it impossible for the scheduler to determine the actual distortion of the sequence at the receiver. Therefore, the objective of the optimization is to minimize the expected distortion of the received sequence, where the expectation is calculated at the scheduler with respect to the packet loss probability in the channel. The expected distortion is used to order the packets in the transmission queue of each user, and then gradients of the expected distortion are used to efficiently allocate resources across users. Simulations show that the proposed scheme performs significantly better than a conventional content-independent scheme for video transmission.     

Quality-driven cross-layer optimized video delivery over LTE

3GPP Long Term Evolution is one of the major steps in mobile communication to enhance the user experience for next-generation mobile broadband networks. In LTE, orthogonal frequency- division multiple access is adopted in the downlink of its E-UTRA air interface. Although cross-layer techniques have been widely adopted in literature for dynamic resource allocation to maximize data rate in OFDMA wireless networks, application-oriented quality of service for video delivery, such as delay constraint and video distortion, have been largely ignored. However, for wireless video delivery in LTE, especially delay-bounded real-time video streaming, higher data rate could lead to higher packet loss rate, thus degrading the user-perceived video quality. In this article we present a new QoS-aware LTE OFDMA scheduling algorithm for wireless real-time video delivery over the downlink of LTE cellular networks to achieve the best user-perceived video quality under the given application delay constraint. In the proposed approach, system throughput, application QoS constraints, and scheduling fairness are jointly integrated into a cross-layer design framework to dynamically perform radio resource allocation for multiple users, and to effectively choose the optimal system parameters such as modulation and coding scheme and video encoding parameters to adapt to the varying channel quality of each resource block. Experimental results have shown significant performance enhancement of the proposed system.     

Downlink user selection and resource allocation for semi-elastic flows in an OFDM cell

We are concerned with user selection and resource allocation in wireless networks for semi-elastic applications such as video conferencing. While many packet scheduling algorithms have been proposed for elastic applications, and many user selection algorithms have been proposed for inelastic applications, little is known about optimal user selection and resource allocation for semi-elastic applications in wireless networks. We consider user selection and allocation of downlink transmission power and subcarriers in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing cellular system. We pose a utility maximization problem, but find that direct solution is computationally intractable. We first propose a method that makes joint decisions about user selection and resource allocation by transforming the utility function into a concave function so that convex optimization techniques can be used, resulting in a complexity polynomial in the number of users with a bounded duality gap. This method can be implemented if the network communicates a shadow price for power to power allocation modules, which in turn communicate shadow prices for rate to individual users. We then propose a method that makes separate decisions about user selection and resource allocation, resulting in a complexity linear in the number of users.     

Max-utility subcarrier allocation for heterogeneous services in wireless OFDM system

In future wireless network, one user will require multiple homogeneous or heterogeneous services simultaneously. Then, the scheduling algorithm is not only responsible for assigning a resource block to different users but also sharing the assigned resource block among multiple services for one user. Most of the traditional scheduling algorithms are designed to serve one service per user, and cannot be applied directly to this scenario because of the fairness criterion. This article focuses on adaptive resource allocation for multiple services per user at the downlink of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) based system. This article addresses this integrative resource scheduling problem based on utility function. First, the optimal algorithm for dynamic subcarrier allocation and share is deduced for homogeneous best-effort service system. Then the algorithm is extended to heterogeneous services system by classifying the delay sensitive service according to the head-of-line packet delay. The design goal is to maximize aggregate utility function to exploit multiuser diversity gain to the greatest extent even as guaranteeing quality of service (QoS) for delay sensitive service.     

A Dynamic Resource Allocation Scheme for the Downlink Heterogeneous Traffic of Internet Protocol (IP) Based OFDM networks

Radio Resource management mechanisms such as physical-centric radio resource allocation and medium access control (MAC)—centric packet scheduling are expected to play a substantial role in the performance of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) based wireless networks. OFDM provide fine granularity for resource allocation since they are capable of dynamically assigning sub-carriers to multiple users and adaptively allocating transmit power. The current layered networking architecture, in which each layer is designed and operated independently, results in inefficient resource use in wireless networks due to the nature of the wireless medium, such as time-varying channel fading. Thus, we need an integrated adaptive design across different layers, allowing for a cross-layer design. In this paper, a scheduling scheme is proposed to dynamically allocate resources for the downlink data transmission of internet protocol based OFDM networks. Generally to maximize the capacity and user satisfaction improvements in packet data admission, scheduling and policing are necessary. Of the three, efficient scheduling has the greatest impact on increased system capacity or effective spectrum usage. In addition, proper scheduling can greatly improve user satisfaction. The contribution of this work is twofold: first we evaluate current allocation schemes by exploiting the knowledge of channel sate information (CSI) and traffic characteristics in terms of queue state information (QSI) to acquire the system performance on a real time network. Second, the resource allocation scheme is extended by incorporating MAC layer information as well as opportunistic packet scheduling in the time-domain-based on minimum weight cost function. The key factors that affect the overall system performance in terms of system average throughput and delay are identified, evaluated and discussed.     

Optimizing the ARQ performance in downlink packet data systems with scheduling

Third generation wireless systems typically employ adaptive coding and modulation, scheduling, and Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) techniques to provide high-speed packet data service on the downlink. Two main considerations in designing such a system are algorithms for the selection of coding and modulation schemes based on the channel quality of the link and algorithms for the selection of the user to whom a particular slot is assigned. We propose a systematic approach to optimize the mapping between signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio (SINR) and modulation and coding scheme (MCS) to maximize the throughput by taking into account the type of HARQ scheme employed. We also propose to incorporate frame error rate (FER) and retransmission information as a part of the scheduling decision. The proposed scheduler ranking methods based on using an effective rate rather than the instantaneous rate provide natural priority to retransmissions over new transmissions, and priority to users with better channel quality. Extensive simulation results comparing performance of the proposed methods to conventional methods are presented.     

Fair Class-Based Downlink Scheduling with Revenue Considerations in Next Generation Broadband Wireless Access Systems

The success of emerging Broadband Wireless Access Systems (BWASs) will depend, among other factors, on their ability to manage their shared wireless resources in the most efficient way. This is a complex task due to the heterogeneous nature, and hence, diverse Quality of Service (QoS) requirements of different applications that these systems support. Therefore, QoS provisioning is crucial for the success of such wireless access systems. In this paper, we propose a novel downlink packet scheduling scheme for QoS provisioning in BWASs. The proposed scheme employs practical economic models through the use of novel utility and opportunity cost functions to simultaneously satisfy the diverse QoS requirements of mobile users and maximize the revenues of network operators. Unlike existing schemes, the proposed scheme is general and can support multiple QoS classes with users having different QoS and traffic demands. To demonstrate its generality, we show how the utility function can be used to support three different types of traffic, namely best-effort traffic, traffic with minimum data rate requirements, and traffic with maximum packet delay requirements. Extensive performance analysis is carried out to show the effectiveness and strengths of the proposed packet scheduling scheme.     

基于人脸特征的自适应空域差错掩盖算法

针对在视频通信中,高压缩视频码流对通信信道中由于信道带宽、环境等影响出现的丢包和误码极为敏感,本文提出一种在解码端基于人脸检测的自适应空域差错掩盖算法,根据正确接收帧的人脸位置及人脸运动的趋势预测受损帧人脸的位置,对于受损帧人脸内五官区域的宏块采用水平双线性插值,对于背景区域宏块采用自适应多方向插值算法。实验结果表明与现有算法相比主客观质量都有所提高。     

Wireless Packet Scheduling Algorithm for OFDMA System Based on Time‐Utility and Channel State

In this paper, we propose an urgency‐ and efficiencybased wireless packet scheduling (UEPS) algorithm that is able to schedule real‐time (RT) and non‐real‐time (NRT) traffics at the same time while supporting multiple users simultaneously at any given scheduling time instant. The UEPS algorithm is designed to support wireless downlink packet scheduling in an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) system, which is a strong candidate as a wireless access method for the next generation of wireless communications. The UEPS algorithm uses the time‐utility function as a scheduling urgency factor and the relative status of the current channel to the average channel status as an efficiency indicator of radio resource usage. The design goal of the UEPS algorithm is to maximize throughput of NRT traffics while satisfying quality‐of‐service (QoS) requirements of RT traffics. The simulation study shows that the UEPS algorithm is able to give better throughput performance than existing wireless packet scheduling algorithms such as proportional fair (PF) and modifiedlargest weighted delay first (M‐LWDF), while satisfying the QoS requirements of RT traffics such as average delay and packet loss rate under various traffic loads.     

Rate-distortion based real-time wireless video streaming

This paper presents wireless video streaming techniques that exploit the characteristics of video content, transmission history, and physical layer channels to enable real-time efficient video streaming over wireless networks to a wireless client. The key contribution of the proposed video streaming techniques is the use of rate-distortion based, but simplified, low complexity packet scheduling as well as forward error correction (FEC) rate selection. To this end, we develop an optimization framework that jointly schedules the packets and selects the FEC rates. The rate-distortion optimized packet scheduling and FEC rate selection provides the optimum quality video on the receiver side albeit at a high computational cost. By some intelligent approximations, rate distortion optimized packet scheduling and FEC rate selection technique is transformed into two sub-optimal but low complexity video streaming techniques that can provide high video quality. We perform extensive simulations to understand the performance of our proposed techniques under different scenarios. Results show that, the proposed techniques improve video quality on the average by 4 dB. We conclude that significant benefits to end-user experience can be obtained by using such video streaming methods.     

QoS based fair resource allocation in multi-cell TD/CDMA communication systems

Abstract-In a wireless multimedia code division multiple access (CDMA) system, the resources in terms of transmission rate and power should be efficiently distributed to each user to guarantee its quality-of-service (QoS) requirements. In, this paper, a resource allocation algorithm which combines packet scheduling and power assignment is proposed to achieve efficient resource utilization under QoS constraints. The packet scheduling is based on the fair packet loss sharing (FPLS) principle, and the power assignment is determined by the received power limited (RPL) scheme. The basic idea of FPLS is to schedule the transmission of multimedia packets in such a way that, all the users have a fair share of packet loss according to their QoS requirements, which maximizes the number of the served users with QoS satisfaction. The RPL scheme minimizes the received power for each packet. Given the propagation path loss, it in turn minimizes the transmitted power as well. The intercell interference from the scheduled packets is also limited in order to increase the system capacity.     

Joint packet scheduling and resource allocation with quality fairness for wireless VoD system

This paper investigates the problem of multiuser packet scheduling and resource allocation for video transmission over downlink OFDMA networks. A cross-layer approach is proposed to maximize the received video quality under the video quality fairness constraint. Unlike the previous methods in which the objective index is estimated the video quality in the unit of bit, the proposed algorithm develops the objective index in unit of packet, which is more fit for video transmission. In order to solve the optimization problem, a suboptimal algorithm of joint packet scheduling and resource allocation is proposed. The algorithm is compatible with the emerging wireless standards, such as IEEE 802.16. The simulation results show that the proposed method outperforms the conventional resource allocation schemes in terms of received video qualities and quality fairness.     

Joint utility function-based scheduling for two-way communication services in wireless networks

A type of joint utility function-based scheduling is proposed for two-way communication services in wireless networks. The scheduling of uplink and downlink services is done jointly so that the base station selects a user efficiently and fairly while considering the channel state of both the uplink and the downlink. Because a user generally has two communication links, an uplink and a downlink, the overall satisfaction with a communication service can be formulated as the sum of the quality of the uplink and downlink services. However, most of the previous types of scheduling for the uplink and downlink were designed separately and independently. This paper proposes a joint scheduling algorithm for integrated uplink and downlink services: a base station selects a user while simultaneously considering both the uplink channel state and the downlink channel state. An analytical model is developed for the purpose of determining the scheduling metric, the system throughput, and the level of fairness. The numerical and computer simulation results show that in comparison with conventional proportional fair scheduling the proposed joint scheduling achieves a better throughput while satisfying the fairness among users.     

Efficient channel utilization for real-time video in OVSF-CDMA systems with QoS assurance

In this paper, the utilization of real-time video service in the downlink of an orthogonal variable spreading factor code division multiple access (OVSF-CDMA) system is studied. By modeling the video traffic and wireless channel as a joint Markov modulated process, and properly partitioning the states of the Markov process, an adaptive rate allocation scheme is proposed for real-time video transmission with quality of service provisioning while achieving high channel utilization. The scheme is applicable for packet switching and frame-by-frame real-time video transmission, and incorporates both the physical layer and network layer characteristics. For QoS provisions, the closed form expressions of packet delay and loss probability are derived based on the Markov model. Analytical and simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme can significantly improve the channel utilization over the commonly used effective bandwidth approach.     

An enhanced channel-quality indication (CQI) reporting scheme for HSDPA systems

A major evolution of UMTS standard is the high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA). One of key techniques supporting HSDPA is the adaptive modulation and coding (AMC) in which the modulation scheme and the coding rate are adaptively changed according to the downlink channel quality reported by the user equipment (UE). Therefore, the channel quality indication (CQI) reporting scheme is directly related to the accuracy of AMC and the performance of HSDPA. This letter proposes an enhanced CQI reporting scheme that can be used when a proportional fair scheduling algorithm (PFA) is used as a packet scheduling algorithm. The proposed scheme uses a dynamic threshold to filter off redundant CQI reports. With the proposed scheme, the battery capacity of UK can be conserved, maintaining the performance of traditional CQI reporting scheme.     

Rate scheduling in multiple antenna downlink wireless systems

We consider scheduling strategies for multiantenna and multibeam cellular wireless systems for high-speed packet data services on the downlink. We establish a fundamental connection between the stability region of the queuing system and the set of feasible transmission rates, which provides the basis for the scheduling algorithm proposed in this paper. Transmission using adaptive steerable beams and fixed sector beams are considered and average delay versus throughput results are obtained through simulations for the proposed scheduling scheme in each case. While in single antenna systems multiuser diversity gains are achieved by the scheduling algorithms that transmit to a single user in each scheduling interval, our results show that with multiple antennas, transmitting to a carefully chosen subset of users has superior performance. The multiantenna scheduling problem is closely related to the problem of coordinated scheduling for transmission through multiple base stations, where a user can receive signals from several base stations simultaneously. We consider the special case when three single-antenna base stations are allowed to cooperate and transmit to the users in the triangular region between the base stations and propose scheduling strategies that demonstrate significant gains.     

The rate region of a cooperative scheduling system

A wireless communication system where a common base station is scheduled to transmit information to multiple mobile users on a time division (TD) basis is considered. The capacity region of this system is found for the two user case and the optimal scheduling scheme is proposed which achieves the boundary of the capacity region. Furthermore, the optimal scheduling scheme is found for the case when the remote mobile users can perform downlink cooperation and the achievable rate region of the downlink cooperative system is characterized. Finally, a simple iterative algorithm is proposed for finding the resource allocation parameters and the scheduling scheme for the cooperative system.     

3GPP LTE系统中无线视频传输调度算法研究

摘要：针对3GPP LTE系统,本文提出了适用于下行链路视频业务的一种新的分组调度算法,即时延优先比例公平调度（Delay First-Proportional Fair Scheduling,DF-PFS）。当需要做出调度决策时,该算法利用每个用户的数据包时延信息和瞬时下行信道条件,在满足用户QoS前提下最大限度地提高系统吞吐量。同时,当用户选择资源块（RB）进行传输后,即从用户集合中将该用户删除,避免接近eNodeB的用户一直占用无线资源,确保了资源分配的公平性。实验仿真结果表明,该算法在丢包率和PSNR性能上优于最大权重时延优先（M-LWDF）算法,在保证用户间公平性前提下,满足了视频业务的QoS要求。     

Quality-aware cross-layer scheduling for robust video streaming over wireless channels

In the case of video streaming over wireless channels, burst errors may lead to serious video quality degradation. By jointly exploiting the scheduling mechanism on different communication layers, this paper proposes a quality-aware cross-layer scheduling scheme to achieve unequal error control for each Latency-constraint Frame Set (LFS) of a video stream. After a network-layer agent at base station firstly utilizes the network-layer packet scheduling to provide packet-granularity importance classification for the current LFS, a link-layer agent at base station further utilizes the Radio-Link-Unit (RLU) scheduling to implement finer selective retransmission of the current LFS. Under scheduling delay and bandwidth constraints, the proposed scheme can be aware of the application-layer quality and time-varying channel conditions, and hence burst errors can simply be shifted to lower-priority transmission units in the current LFS. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme has strong robustness against burst errors, and thus improves the overall received quality of the video stream over wireless channels.     

一种适用于B3G移动通信系统下行共享信道的调度算法

本文针对后三代(B3G)移动通信系统中的宽带无线信道特性和流媒体业务特征,分析了可用于高速下行共享信道的各种传统分组调度算法,提出面向流媒体业务能够提高系统吞吐量的基于优先级公平调度(Priority-Based Fairness Scheduling,PBFS)算法.该算法根据各移动用户收发信道质量和业务传输的QoS要求动态调整各用户的业务传输优先级,确定下行共享信道的调度方案.并给出该算法的简化形式S-PBFS.仿真结果表明,与传统调度算法相比,S-PBFS算法在数据包传输时延受限的条件下具有无线信道利用率高、实现复杂度低等特点.