Distributed Rate Allocation Policies for Multi-Homed Video Streaming over Heterogeneous Access Networks

We consider the problem of rate allocation among multiple simultaneous video streams sharing multiple heterogeneous access networks. We develop and evaluate an analytical framework for optimal rate allocation based on observed available bit rate (ABR) and round-trip time (RTT) over each access network and video distortion-rate (DR) characteristics. The rate allocation is formulated as a convex optimization problem that minimizes the total expected distortion of all video streams. We present a distributed approximation of its solution and compare its performance against H -optimal control and two heuristic schemes based on TCP-style additive-increase-multiplicativedecrease (AIMD) principles. The various rate allocation schemes are evaluated in simulations of multiple high-definition (HD) video streams sharing multiple access networks. Our results demonstrate that, in comparison with heuristic AIMD-based schemes, both media-aware allocation and H -optimal control benefit from proactive c...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: CORR
• Authors: Xiaoqing Zhu, Piyush Agrawal, Jatinder Pal Singh, Tansu Alpcan, Bernd Girod
• Keywords: Access Networks, CORR 2010, Education, Optimal Rate Allocation, Rate Allocation