Mobile Video Streaming Over Heterogeneous Networks

All-IP networks are under development with multimedia services in mind. Video multicast is an efficient way to deliver one video simultaneously to many users over such heterogeneous wired-to-wireless networks, such as in wireless IP applications where a mobile terminal communicates with an IP server through a wired IP network in tandem with a wireless network. Unicast video streaming is also an attractive way to deliver time-shifted TV to mobile devices. This Chapter presents a simple cross-layer model that leads to the optimal throughput to multiple users for multicasting video over a heterogeneous network. An adaptive forward-error-correction scheme is applied at the byte-level as well as at the packet-level to reduce channel errors. The results show that a server can significantly adapt to the bandwidth and FEC codes to maximize the video quality of service. For unicast streaming, the Chapter presents a single negative acknowledgment scheme in which a video stream is transmitted over a heterogeneous network from a streaming server to a mobile device in a WiMAX network. The broadband streaming system is compared to several candidate solutions based on originally wired network congestion controllers. Multi-connection streaming is also investigated.