Robust Live Streaming over LEO Satellite Constellations: Measurement, Analysis, and Handover-Aware Adaptation

TL;DR

This paper introduces SARA, a middleware that improves live streaming over LEO satellite networks by reducing rebuffering and adapting to satellite handovers, addressing a key challenge in satellite-based internet access.

Contribution

We propose Satellite-Aware Rate Adaptation (SARA), a novel middleware that enhances ABR algorithms for live streaming over LEO satellites by managing network variations during handovers.

Findings

SARA reduces rebuffering time by 39.41%.

SARA slightly improves latency by 0.65%.

SARA introduces minimal bitrate loss of 0.13%.

Abstract

Live streaming has experienced significant growth recently. Yet this rise in popularity contrasts with the reality that a substantial segment of the global population still lacks Internet access. The emergence of Low Earth orbit Satellite Networks (LSNs), such as SpaceX's Starlink and Amazon's Project Kuiper, presents a promising solution to fill this gap. Nevertheless, our measurement study reveals that existing live streaming platforms may not be able to deliver a smooth viewing experience on LSNs due to frequent satellite handovers, which lead to frequent video rebuffering events. Current state-of-the-art learning-based Adaptive Bitrate (ABR) algorithms, even when trained on LSNs' network traces, fail to manage the abrupt network variations associated with satellite handovers effectively. To address these challenges, for the first time, we introduce Satellite-Aware Rate Adaptation (SARA), a versatile and lightweight middleware that can seamlessly integrate with various ABR algorithms to enhance the performance of live streaming over LSNs. SARA intelligently modulates video playback speed and furnishes ABR algorithms with insights derived from the distinctive network characteristics of LSNs, thereby aiding ABR algorithms in making informed bitrate selections and effectively minimizing rebuffering events that occur during satellite handovers. Our extensive evaluation shows that SARA can effectively reduce the rebuffering time by an average of $39.41\%$ and slightly improve latency by $0.65\%$ while only introducing an overall loss in bitrate by $0.13\%$.