VoD Streaming Service Scheduling to Minimize the Distortion

In this paper, we propose an efficient scheduling algorithm to minimize the video distortion of H.264 SVC streaming over wireless networks. The proposed algorithm fully utilizes the layered coding structure of H.264 SVC and combines unequal error protection, forward error correction, and automatic repeat request together to efficiently overcome the bandwidth-limited, error-prone and time varying characteristics of the wireless channel. First, we propose the scheduling metric, called the priority index, which determines the scheduling priority of packets. Based on the metric, the scheduling algorithm is proposed that considers transmission-requested and retransmission-requested packets together for scheduling decisions. These aspects let the scheduler efficiently and effectively select which packets to transmit among the candidates under the constraints of capacity and delay with low complexity. The simulation results show that the proposed scheme reduces the distortion compared to the equal error protection and other unequal error protection schemes.