End-to-End Performance of Video Streaming With MPEG-DASH Over Satellite 5G IAB Networks

TL;DR

This paper evaluates MPEG-DASH video streaming performance over satellite 5G IAB networks, analyzing how different transport protocols and congestion control algorithms impact user QoE in a simulated environment.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive simulation framework for assessing adaptive video streaming over satellite-terrestrial networks with various transport protocols and congestion control algorithms.

Findings

QUIC-BBR offers the best balance of throughput, latency, and playback continuity.

No single configuration is optimal for all performance metrics.

Tradeoffs exist among throughput, latency, fairness, and user experience.

Abstract

We present an end-to-end performance evaluation of MPEG-DASH video streaming over a Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite-based 5G Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) network. Our objective is to investigate how modern transport protocols and congestion control algorithms affect adaptive video delivery in an integrated satellite-terrestrial network (ISTN), where latency, throughput variation, and playback continuity jointly shape the user Quality-of-Experience (QoE). We implement a simulation framework in ns-3 by adapting open-source modules for the 5G radio access network, LEOS backhaul, transport layer protocols, and MPEG-DASH application behavior. Within this framework, TCP and QUIC are evaluated with multiple congestion control algorithms, including CUBIC, NewReno, and BBR. Performance is assessed using application-level and transport-level metrics, including playback duration, interruption duration, stall count, playback bitrate, throughput, latency, and fairness. The results show that no single configuration is uniformly optimal across all metrics. However, clear tradeoffs are observed among throughput, latency, playback continuity, and fairness. In particular, QUIC-BBR provides the most balanced overall behavior from a streaming QoE perspective, combining adequate playback duration with fewer interruptions and substantially lower latency than other alternatives. These findings highlight the importance of jointly considering transport design and congestion control when evaluating adaptive video streaming over ISTNs.