Segment scheduling scheme for efficient bandwidth utilization of HTTP adaptive streaming in multipath environments

Abstract

HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) adaptive streaming has been receiving attention to provide efficient video streaming services by adaptively adjusting the transmission rate. With increased demand for high-quality video streaming, since mobile devices are now equipped with multiple wireless interfaces connected to different networks (3G/4G or Wi-Fi), one possible solution to provide a better quality of experience (QoE) is to use multipath-based transmission schemes. In conventional HTTP adaptive streaming systems, the segment request policy initially operates in a buffering state and switches to a steady state once the playout buffer reaches a threshold. In the steady state, the client generates an ON/OFF traffic pattern that degrades bandwidth utilization and user QoE in multipath environments. In this paper, we propose a segment scheduling scheme for efficient bandwidth utilization in multipath environments. In our scheme, we first propose a collective segment request policy to improve bandwidth utilization and reducing the frequency of OFF periods. To improve network responsiveness, we present a method for adaptively adjusting the request interval. Subsequently, we propose a segment scheduler to prevent the out-of-order problem in multipath environments. Finally, a rate adaptation algorithm for the proposed request policy is proposed. Through simulation, we prove that our scheme significantly improves bandwidth utilization and increases the average bitrate.