NeuSaver: Neural Adaptive Power Consumption Optimization for Mobile Video Streaming

Abstract

Video streaming services strive to support high-quality videos at higher resolutions and frame rates to improve the quality of experience (QoE). However, high-quality videos consume considerable amounts of energy on mobile devices. This paper proposes NeuSaver, which reduces the power consumption of mobile devices when streaming videos by applying an adaptive frame rate to each video chunk without compromising user experience. NeuSaver generates an optimal policy that determines the appropriate frame rate for each video chunk using reinforcement learning (RL). The RL model automatically learns the policy that maximizes the QoE goals based on previous observations. NeuSaver also uses an asynchronous advantage actor-critic algorithm to reinforce the RL model quickly and robustly. Streaming servers that support NeuSaver preprocesses videos into segments with various frame rates, which is similar to the process of creating videos with multiple bit rates in dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP. NeuSaver utilizes the commonly used H.264 video codec. We evaluated NeuSaver in various experiments and a user study through four video categories along with the state-of-the-art model. Our experiments showed that NeuSaver effectively reduces the power consumption of mobile devices when streaming video by an average of 16.14% and up to 23.12% while achieving high QoE.