Utility Optimal Scheduling and Admission Control for Adaptive Video Streaming in Small Cell Networks

TL;DR

This paper proposes a distributed algorithm for optimal scheduling and admission control in small cell networks to enhance adaptive video streaming, balancing network utility and user quality.

Contribution

It introduces a decomposed, distributed approach for joint scheduling and admission control tailored for DASH-based adaptive streaming in small cell networks.

Findings

Algorithm achieves near-optimal utility in simulations

Supports DASH protocol compatibility

Effective in realistic small cell network scenarios

Abstract

We consider the jointly optimal design of a transmission scheduling and admission control policy for adaptive video streaming over small cell networks. We formulate the problem as a dynamic network utility maximization and observe that it naturally decomposes into two subproblems: admission control and transmission scheduling. The resulting algorithms are simple and suitable for distributed implementation. The admission control decisions involve each user choosing the quality of the video chunk asked for download, based on the network congestion in its neighborhood. This form of admission control is compatible with the current video streaming technology based on the DASH protocol over TCP connections. Through simulations, we evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm under realistic assumptions for a small-cell network.