Improving H.264 scalable video delivery for multi-homed terminals using multiple links in heterogeneous wireless networks

Abstract

Emerging user terminals come equipped with multiple network interfaces that can be configured to simultaneously support an application that requires more bandwidth resources than a single network can provide. The application can enjoy the support by striping data units across the different interfaces for parallel transmission to the receiver. However, this requires efficient multipath transmission mechanisms to assure improved performance. In this paper, we focus on parallel transmission of scalable video using multiple links in heterogeneous wireless networks. Recent research efforts on multipath scalable video streaming have focused on delay characteristics of the available wireless paths to optimize video playback. However, delay-based solutions risk significant loss of video packets, as the packets may be scheduled for transmission over low delay but lossy paths. Packet loss can lead to undesirable effects in scalable video, where the loss of a video packet can propagate to dependent packets, thus resulting in perceptible video artifacts. We propose a new multipath scalable video streaming model that considers not only delay but also loss characteristics to improve quality of the multipath streaming process. We show through trace-driven simulations that our solution outperforms other solutions in terms of video quality measured using peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and structural similarity index (SSIM).