A Novel Adaptation Method for HTTP Streaming of VBR Videos over Mobile Networks

TL;DR

This paper introduces a buffer-based adaptation method for HTTP streaming of VBR videos over mobile networks, enhancing quality and buffer stability amidst bandwidth fluctuations.

Contribution

It proposes a new adaptation approach using local average bitrate for VBR videos, addressing limitations of existing CBR-focused methods.

Findings

Provides stable video quality under bandwidth variations

Ensures buffer stability during streaming

Outperforms existing adaptation methods in experiments

Abstract

Recently, HTTP streaming has become very popular for delivering video over the Internet. For adaptivity, a provider should generate multiple versions of a video as well as the related metadata. Various adaptation methods have been proposed to support a streaming client in coping with strong bandwidth variations. However, most of existing methods target at constant bitrate (CBR) videos only. In this paper, we present a new method for quality adaptation in on-demand streaming of variable bitrate (VBR) videos. To cope with strong variations of VBR bitrate, we use a local average bitrate as the representative bitrate of a version. A buffer-based algorithm is then proposed to conservatively adapt video quality. Through experiments, we show that our method can provide quality stability as well as buffer stability even under very strong variations of bandwidth and video bitrates.