Wireless Video Streaming Quality Management for Bandwidth Constrained Cellular Network

• US 20120124633A1
• Filed: 11/15/2010
• Published: 05/17/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Sheinin, Vadim, LU, LIGANG
• Application Number:
  US12/946,544
• Publication Number:
  US 20120124633A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/114
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/752 adapting media to network capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/765 intermediate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2343 involving reformatting operations of video signals for distribution or compliance with end-user requests or end-user device requirements video transcoding H04N19/40; media packet handling at the source H04L65/762
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2402 Monitoring of the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. bandwidth available traffic monitoring in data switching networks H04L43/00; monitoring data switching networks utilization H04L43/0876
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals

Abstract

A method for wireless video streaming includes determining a backhaul bandwidth of a base station and ongoing traffic between a plurality of wireless clients and the base station, determining a video transcoding policy for each of the wireless clients based on a service agreement of each wireless client, decoding network signaling information, extracting a plurality of video streams based on the decoded network signaling information, and transcoding the plurality of video streams simultaneously upon determining that the ongoing traffic exceeds the backhaul bandwidth. Transcoding is based on a video transcoding policy of a receiving wireless client, video properties of a video stream being transcoded, and the decoded network signaling information.

Claims

1. A method for wireless video streaming, comprising:

determining a backhaul bandwidth of a base station;

determining ongoing traffic between a plurality of wireless clients and the base station;

determining a video transcoding policy for each of the plurality of wireless clients based on a service agreement corresponding to each of the plurality of wireless clients;

decoding network signaling information;

extracting a plurality of video streams, based on the decoded network signaling information; and

transcoding the plurality of video streams simultaneously upon determining that the ongoing traffic exceeds the backhaul bandwidth, wherein the transcoding is based on a video transcoding policy of a receiving wireless client, video properties of a video stream being transcoded, and the decoded network signaling information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein decoding network signaling information comprises identifying a session identification (ID), a base station ID, and a user mobile ID for each of the plurality of wireless clients.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein statistical multiplexing is utilized to transcode the plurality of video streams using different transcoding parameters.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising dynamically adjusting the different transcoding parameters used to transcode the plurality of video streams in response to a change in the ongoing traffic.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the different transcoding parameters comprise at least one of reducing a frame rate of the plurality of video streams, reducing a bit rate of the plurality of video streams, reducing a video resolution of the plurality of video streams, dropping B frames from the plurality of video streams, and removing an enhancement layer from the plurality of video streams.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the video properties of a video stream are determined by parsing video parameters from header packets of the video stream.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the video parameters include at least one of a bit rate, a frame rate, or a video resolution.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the extracted plurality of video streams are identified based on a session identification (ID), a base station ID, and a user mobile ID associated with each of the plurality of wireless clients.

9. A video service manager, comprising:

a service policy component configured to determine a video transcoding policy for each of a plurality of wireless clients based on a service agreement corresponding to each of the plurality of wireless clients;

a signaling processing component configured to decode network signaling information, and extract a plurality of video streams based on the decoded network signaling information; and

a traffic monitoring and transcoding engine configured to transcode the plurality of video streams simultaneously upon determining that ongoing traffic between the plurality of wireless clients and a base station exceeds a backhaul bandwidth of the base station, wherein the transcoding is based on a video transcoding policy of a receiving wireless client, video properties of a video stream being transcoded, and the decoded network signaling information.

10. The video service manager of claim 9, wherein the signaling processing component is configured to identify a session identification (ID), base station ID, and user mobile ID for each of the plurality of wireless clients.

11. The video service manager of claim 9, wherein the traffic monitoring and transcoding engine is configured to perform at least one of reducing a frame rate of the plurality of video streams, reducing a bit rate of the plurality of video streams, reducing a video resolution of the plurality of video streams, dropping B frames from the plurality of video streams, and removing an enhancement layer from the plurality of video streams.

12. The video service manager of claim 9, wherein the video service manager is disposed between the plurality of wireless clients and a base station controller in a cellular network.

13. The video service manager of claim 9, wherein the video service manager is disposed between a base station controller and a core network in a cellular network.

14. The video service manager of claim 9, wherein the traffic monitoring and transcoding engine is configured to utilize statistical multiplexing to transcode the plurality of video streams using different transcoding parameters.

15. The video service manager of claim 14, wherein the traffic monitoring and transcoding engine is configured to dynamically adjust the different transcoding parameters in response to a change in the ongoing traffic.

16. The video service manager of claim 9, wherein the traffic monitoring and transcoding engine is configured to identify video properties of the plurality of video streams by parsing video parameters from header packets of the plurality of video streams.

17. The video service manager of claim 16, wherein the video parameters include at least one of a bit rate, a frame rate, or a video resolution.

18. The video service manager of claim 9, wherein the signaling processing component is configured to identify the extracted plurality of video streams based on a session identification (ID), a base station ID, and a user mobile ID associated with each of the plurality of wireless clients.

19. A method for simultaneously transcoding a plurality of video streams, comprising:

monitoring ongoing traffic in a cellular network;

decoding network signaling information in the cellular network;

receiving a service agreement from each of a plurality of wireless clients in the cellular network; and

transcoding the plurality of video streams simultaneously upon determining that the ongoing traffic exceeds a backhaul bandwidth of the cellular network, the backhaul bandwidth is equal to a predefined threshold, or the ongoing traffic includes substantial congestion or packet loss,

wherein the transcoding is based on the decoded network signaling information and the service agreement corresponding to each of the plurality of wireless clients receiving a video stream.