QoE-aware video streaming over HTTP and software defined networking

Abstract

Due to the increase in video streaming traffic over the Internet, more innovative methods are in demand for improving both Quality of Experience (QoE) of users and Quality of Service (QoS) of providers. In recent years, HTTP Adaptive Streaming (HAS) has received significant attention from both industry and academia based on its impacts in the enhancement of media streaming services. However, HAS-alone cannot guarantee a seamless viewing experience, since this highly relies on the Network Operators’ infrastructure and evolving network conditions. Along with the development of future Internet infrastructure, Software-Defined Networking (SDN) has been researched and newly implemented as a promising solution in improving services of different Internet layers. In order to enhance quality of video delivery, we try to combine the above two technologies, which has not been well-studied in academia. In this paper, we present a novel architecture incorporating bitrate adaptation and dynamic route allocation. At the client side, adaptation logic of VBR videos streaming is built based on the MPEG-DASH standard. On the network side, a SDN controller is implemented with several routing strategies on top of the OpenFlow protocol. Our experimental results show that the proposed solution enhances at least 38% up to 185% in term of average bitrate in comparison with some existing solutions as well as achieves smoother viewing experience than the traditional Internet.