MSPlayer: Multi-Source and Multi-Path Video Streaming

Online video streaming through mobile devices has become extremely popular nowadays. YouTube, for example, reported that the percentage of its traffic streaming to mobile devices has soared from 6% to more than 40% over the past two years. Moreover, people are constantly seeking to stream high-quality videos for better experience while often suffering from limited bandwidth. With the rapid deployment of content delivery networks, popular videos are now replicated at different sites, and users can stream over-the-top videos from close-by sources with low latency. Aggregating bandwidth for high definition video streaming has become possible as mobile devices, nowadays, are equipped with multiple wireless interfaces (e.g., WiFi and 3G/4G). We propose a client-based video streaming solution, MSPlayer, that takes advantage of multiple video sources and leverages multiple network paths through different interfaces. MSPlayer reduces start-up latency and provides robust data transport with high video quality in mobile scenarios. We experimentally demonstrate our solution on a test bed and through the YouTube video service.