IPTV QoS adaptation for multi-homed mobile terminals in a new IMS based architecture

With the emergence of multimedia applications that have real constraints, ensuring a satisfying quality of service to mobile users presents a big challenge in heterogeneous wireless networks. In such environment, the asymmetry of the available resources as well as user’s mobility can cause offered QoS degradation. In this paper, we propose the use of the Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) within a QoS adaptive IPTV services in a novel IMS architecture. The multi-homing feature and the partial reliability extension allow improving the network performance and increasing the user satisfaction. In addition, we have proposed an mSCTP based mobility scheme to guarantee service continuity during handover to IPTV users over IMS. The handover decision includes Perceived QoS (PQoS) measurement reflecting the user satisfaction and Media Independent Handover (MIH) information. An analytical study of the time required to perform IPTV adaptation, show that our approach improves the performance by minimizing the delay and maximizing the user satisfaction.