Service Provisioning and Profit Maximization in Network-assisted Adaptive HTTP Streaming

TL;DR

This paper introduces an MDP-based framework for adaptive HTTP streaming that balances content provider and network operator interests, optimizing service quality and profit across diverse network conditions.

Contribution

It presents a flexible, network-assisted adaptation strategy using MDPs, addressing multiple system considerations for improved service provisioning and profit maximization.

Findings

Effective profit maximization in mobile networks.

Balanced service provisioning for diverse QoE levels.

Demonstrated adaptability across different network environments.

Abstract

Adaptive HTTP streaming with centralized consideration of multiple streams has gained increasing interest. It poses a special challenge that the interests of both content provider and network operator need to be deliberately balanced. More importantly, the adaptation strategy is required to be flexible enough to be ported to various systems that work under different network environments, QoE levels, and economic objectives. To address these challenges, we propose a Markov Decision Process (MDP) based network-assisted adaptation framework, wherein cost of buffering, significant playback variation, bandwidth management and income of playback are jointly investigated. We then demonstrate its promising service provisioning and maximal profit for a mobile network in which fair or differentiated service is required.