Content-Aware Rate Control for Video Transmission with Buffer Constraints in Multipath Networks

TL;DR

This paper proposes a content-aware, buffer-aware rate control algorithm for video transmission over multipath networks, optimizing bandwidth allocation to prevent buffer underflow and improve QoS.

Contribution

It introduces a novel content-aware utility function and formulates a multipath utility maximization problem, providing a distributed solution for optimal rate allocation.

Findings

The proposed algorithm effectively prevents buffer underflow in multipath networks.

Numerical results show improved video quality and bandwidth efficiency.

The method adapts to content importance for better QoS management.

Abstract

Being an integral part of the network traffic, nowadays it's vital to design robust mechanisms to provide QoS for multimedia applications. The main goal of this paper is to provide an efficient solution to support content-aware video transmission mechanism with buffer underflow avoidance at the receiver in multipath networks. Towards this, we introduce a content-aware time-varying utility function, where the quality impacts of video content is incorporated into its definition. Using the proposed utility function, we formulate a multipath Dynamic Network Utility Maximization (DNUM) problem for the rate allocation of video streams, where it takes into account QoS demand of video streams in terms of buffer underflow avoidance. Finally, using primal-dual method, we propose a distributed solution that optimally allocates the shared bandwidth to video streams. The numerical examples demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed content-aware rate allocation algorithm for video sources in both single and multiple path network models.