The impact of video-quality-level switching on user quality of experience in dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP

Dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP (DASH) has become a promising solution for video delivery services over the Internet in the last few years. Currently, several video content providers use the DASH solution to improve the users’ quality of experience (QoE) by automatically switching video quality levels (VQLs) according to the network status. However, the frequency of switching events between different VQLs during a video streaming session may disturb the user’s visual attention and therefore affect the user’s QoE. As one of the first attempts to characterize the impact of VQL switching on the user’s QoE, we carried out a series of subjective tests, which show that there is a correlation between the user QoE and the frequency, type, and temporal location of the switching events. We propose a novel parameter named switching degradation factor (SDF) to capture such correlation. A DASH algorithm with SDF parameter is compared with the same algorithm without SDF. The results demonstrate that the SDF parameter significantly improves the user’s QoE, especially when network conditions vary frequently.