Joint source coding and data rate adaptation for energy efficient wireless video streaming

Rapid growth in wireless networks is fueling demand for video services from mobile users. While the problem of transmitting video over unreliable channels has received some attention, the wireless network environment poses challenges such as transmission power management that have received little attention previously in connection with video. Transmission power management affects battery life in mobile devices, interference to other users, and network capacity. We consider energy efficient transmission of a video sequence under delay and quality constraints. The selection of source coding parameters is considered jointly with transmitter power and rate adaptation, and packet transmission scheduling. The goal is to transmit a video frame using the minimal required transmission energy under delay and quality constraints. Experimental results are presented that illustrate the advantages of the proposed approach.     

Bandwidth-aware routing and admission control for efficient video streaming over MANETs

In this paper, we develop and evaluate an adaptive self-configurable routing framework that can deal with dynamic nature of mobile ad hoc networks and provides quality-of-service (QoS) guarantees for efficient video streaming. Proposed framework mainly consists of two major components. Firstly, it is a reactive bandwidth-aware node-disjoint multipath routing protocol which determines routes based on the specified bandwidth requirements of the requesting application. The second component of the framework is a session admission control (SAC) process that permits or denies a session to enter into the network based on the current availability of network bandwidth. We also propose methods to handle QoS violations caused by network mobility and congestion by keeping backup routes, performing local route recovery, avoiding routing through short-lived low quality links and periodic monitoring of the active transmission routes. To verify our proposed algorithms, the network with H.264/SVC encoded video traces which are generated from real-time video traffic is used for modeling the behaviour of the source nodes. It has been observed that reactively discovered and maintained routes on the basis of the most recent information about network topology and available resources can significantly improve the admission decision accuracy of SAC process, in turn improving the quality of received video traffic significantly.

     

可伸缩视频流的安全网络编码方案

为了使可伸缩视频流在异构网络中达到分层安全等级的目的,运用随机函数来随机化视频流各层中的部分数据流,并结合网络编码来抵御已知的明文攻击。此外,对网络编码器进行了研究,设计有序随机线性网络编码器用于可伸缩视频的传输,可以用很少的随机化操作来达到可扩展的安全等级,并降低通信开销。分析表明,所提方案可有效增加网络的吞吐率。     

Region-of-interest based rate control for UAV video coding

To meet the requirement of high-quality transmission of videos captured by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) with low bandwidth, a novel rate control (RC) scheme based on region-of-interest (ROI) is proposed. First, the ROI information is sent to the encoder with the latest high efficient video coding (HEVC) standard to generate an ROI map. Then, by using the ROI map, bit allocation methods are developed at frame level and large coding unit (LCU) level, to avoid inaccurate bit allocation produced by camera movement. At last, by using a better robustness R-λ model, the quantization parameter (QP) for each LCU is calculated. The experimental results show that the proposed RC method can get a lower bitrate error and a higher quality for reconstructed video by choosing appropriate pixel weight on the HEVC platform.     

一个基于速率控制的Internet视频流服务方案

由于视频流服务对于网络服务质量有着较高的要求,而现有的Internet所提供的是尽力而为的服务,无法保证数据的实时传输。该文设计了一个用于Internet上视频流的端到端传输方案.整个方案设计的目的是在网络本身缺乏服务质量保证的条件下尽可能达到最好的视频传输质量。根据可用带宽估计和网络信息反馈,系统对发送速率进行调整,并提供两种视频流服务:存储视频和实时视频。仿真结果表明方案的性能良好,能满足Internet视频流的需求。     

基于半马尔科夫决策过程的视频传输拥塞控制算法

针对传输控制协议(TCP, transmission control protocol)的拥塞控制算法未能满足视频传输质量要求的问题,提出了一种基于半马尔科夫决策过程的视频传输拥塞控制算法。首先, 为克服目前基于峰值信噪比的视频质量评估方法实时性低的缺点,设计了一种可在线运行的无参考视频质量评估方法。其次,根据接收端视频质量的反馈,采用半马尔科夫决策过程对拥塞控制进行建模,并通过求解此模型得到拥塞控制参数的调整策略。仿真实验结果表明,与目前典型的拥塞控制算法相比,该算法不但具备更好的TCP友好性,而且有效地提高了解码后视频序列的主观和客观质量。     

Adaptive packet scheduling for scalable video streaming with network coding

Over the last decade, the emergence of new multimedia devices has motivated the research on efficient media streaming mechanisms that adapt to dynamic network conditions and heterogeneous devices’ capabilities. Network coding as a rateless code has been applied to collaborative media streaming applications and brings substantial improvements regarding throughput and delay. However, little attention has been given to the recoverability of encoded data, especially for the streaming with a strict deadline. This in turn leads to severe quality of experience. In this paper, we solve the unrecoverable transmission by proposing a multi-generation packet scheduling problem, which is treated as a video quality maximization problem and solved using dynamic programming algorithm. Experimental results confirm that the proposed algorithm brings better data recoverability and better quality of service in terms of video quality, delivery ratio, lower redundancy rate under different network sizes.     

Rateless scalable video coding for overlay multisource streaming in MANETs

Recent advances in forward error correction and scalable video coding enable new approaches for robust, distributed streaming in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs). This paper presents an approach for distribution of real time video by uncoordinated peer-to-peer relay or source nodes in an overlay network on top of a MANET. The approach proposed here allows for distributed, rate-distortion optimized transmission-rate allocation for competing scalable video streams at relay nodes in the overlay network. The approach has the desirable feature of path/source diversity that can be used for enhancing reliability in connectivity to serving nodes and/or attaining a higher throughput. The distributed approach reduces signaling overhead as well as avoiding scalability issues that come with centralized processing in MANETs. Results show a significant performance gain over both single-server systems and previously proposed multi-source systems.     

Rate control for streaming video over wireless

Rate control is an important issue in video streaming applications for both wired and wireless networks. A widely accepted rate control method in wired networks is TCP-friendly rate control (TFRC) (Floyd, 2000). It is equation-based rate control in which the TCP-friendly rate is determined as a function of packet loss rate, round-trip time, and packet size. TFRC assumes that packet loss in wired networks is primarily due to congestion, and as such is not applicable to wireless networks in which the main cause of packet loss is at the physical layer. In this article we review existing approaches to solve this problem. Then we propose multiple TFRC connections as an end-to-end rate control solution for wireless video streaming. We show that this approach not only avoids modifications to the network infrastructure or network protocol, but also results in full utilization of the wireless channel. NS-2 simulations, actual experiments over a 1/spl times/RTT CDMA wireless data network, and video streaming simulations using traces from the actual experiments are carried out to characterize the performance and show the efficiency of our proposed approach.     

Energy-efficient video streaming over Bluetooth using rateless coding

Energy-efficient error control for IEEE 802.15.1 (Bluetooth) video communication is proposed. The scheme is based on block-oriented incremental redundancy provided by rateless coding and receiver feedback. Results are presented for time-sensitive video streaming applications under a Markovian channel model. When the proposed algorithm is compared to variations of Bluetooth forward error control, there are improvements of around 3 dB in received video quality and of over 10% in energy efficiency.     

Content-based FGS coding mode determination for video streaming over wireless networks

Video streaming is the major subject of Amendment for MPEG-4 and it is developed in response to the growing needs on a video-coding standard for the video communication. The fine-granular scalability (FGS) combined with the temporal scalability addresses a variety of challenging problems in delivering video. The FGS video encoder makes the coding mode decision based on the video content and the current available bandwidth in order to achieve higher perceptual video quality. In this paper, we develop a mode selection method to find the most suitable scalable coding mode from six coding schemes: FGS, FGST, FGS-SE, and FGST with background composition based on the contents of the video sequences.     

Collaborative resource exchanges for peer-to-peer video streaming over wireless mesh networks

Peer-to-peer collaboration paradigms fundamentally change the passive way wireless stations currently adapt their transmission strategies to match available resources, by enabling them to proactively influence system dynamics through exchange of information and resources. In this paper, we focus on delay-sensitive multimedia transmission among multiple peers over wireless multi-hop enterprise mesh networks. We propose a distributed and efficient framework for resource exchanges that enables peers to collaboratively distribute available wireless resources among themselves based on their quality of service requirements, the underlying channel conditions, and network topology. The resource exchanges are enabled by the scalable coding of the video content and the design of cross-layer optimization strategies, which allow efficient adaptation to varying channel conditions and available resources. We compare our designed low complexity distributed resource exchange algorithms against an optimal centralized resource management scheme and show how their performance varies with the level of collaboration among the peers. We measure system utility in terms of the multimedia quality and show that collaborative approaches achieve ~50% improvement over non-collaborative approaches. Additionally, our distributed algorithms perform within 10% system utility of a centralized optimal resource management scheme. Finally, we observe 2-5 dB improvement in decoded PSNR for each peer due to the deployed cross-layer strategy     

A flexible video streaming system for urban traffic control

This article discusses an innovative system for traffic management that is presently under installation in the city of Valencia. Key features of the system are to exploit open source software components and use MPEG-4 video streaming over an Internet protocol. The video streaming management is particularly sophisticated, resulting in a flexible, efficient, and reliable service. Another important element is the communication network design. In this case, the main issues to address were flexibility, scalability, and fault tolerance. The authors successfully addressed these issues by using a hierarchical network structure, with physical redundancy, based on spanning tree protocols. The overall system is specifically for urban traffic control, but some of its characteristics could make it easily reconfigurable to different contexts and environments.     

一种信道自适应的无线视频流差错控制机制

提出了一种自适应的无线视频流差错保护方法。该方法充分考虑MPEG-4FGS码流细粒度可扩展的特性,根据码流的重要性程度采用不等的保护措施,同时能够自适应地根据无线信道的具体状况,将信道带宽在MPEG-4FGS信源编码速率和信道编码速率之间进行最优化分配,使得接收端能获得最佳的重建视频质量。实验结果表明,在各种不同信道状况下,与均等错误保护和固定的不等错误保护方法相比,该方法均可获得更好的性能。     

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.     

一种高效的基于矢量量化的彩色视频图像压缩编码方法

针对彩色视频图像提出了一种DCT域内基于矢量量化的高效编码方法.为去掉彩色图像各分量间的相关性,首先将图像由RGB空间转换到YUV空间,然后根据人类视觉特征(HVS)对色度信号U、V进行了亚采样和平均化处理;对亮度信号Y则进行分块DCT变换,并根据HVS特征对变化域内的块矢量进行自适应分类,然后根据矢量的类型分别构造码矢和进行全局码书设计.提出的全局码书设计方案可以根据帧间相关性及码字使用频率,对码书的内容自动进行更新和替换,以适应场景内容的变化.实验结果表明:在保证图像重建质量的前提下,本文提出的方法具有较高的压缩效率,比较适合于视频会议以及水下视频观测等应用场合.