Link adaptation for streaming video in EGPRS mobile networks

The poor performance of video compression algorithms in time-varying mobile channels means that the transmission of compressed video over mobile networks is a challenging task. This paper presents a performance enhancement technique for streaming video that makes use of link adaptation. Link adaptation is not generally considered suitable for multi-user streaming video, because it usually requires interaction between the link-layer protocol and the encoder to perform source rate adaptation. The technique presented here requires no such interaction with the encoder, significantly simplifying the link adaptation system. The implementation complexity is very low, enabling a single server to handle large number of users. The benefits of the overall system are demonstrated for MPEG-4 coded video streaming over simulated EGPRS channel conditions. The results reveal that when offered with a similar traffic load, the proposed scheme always provides noticeable improvement of video quality over non-adaptive schemes.