Understanding Cross-Layer Effects on Quality of Experience for Video over NGMN

Abstract

The evolution of wireless network standards, e.g., GSM/GPRS, UMTS, WiFi, WiMAX, and end-user devices has paved the way towards Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN), where users are always connected through multiple radio access networks. NGMN technologies target to improve the user experience especially for mobile data and multimedia services, which are in line with user expectations evident from, for instance, the increasingly popular mobile web video streaming. To understand the quality that can be offered to the user, we compare the Quality of Experience (QoE) for web streaming in a prototype NGMN testbed with WiFi and 3G UMTS/HSDPA support. We use CUBIC TCP as the transport protocol as it is typically the default TCP variant, e.g., in Android phones. We complement the QoE estimations with network Quality of Service (QoS) parameters such as throughput and delay, and transport layer statistics. The results of our evaluation show that (i) video QoE remains stable in WiFi even with high packet loss, (ii) QoE in HSDPA is sensitive to packet loss even for low loss rates due to high variations in the network QoS, namely, throughput and delay, (iii) the decrease in QoE and QoS in HSDPA is due to its negative interactions with the aggressive congestion control of CUBIC TCP, and (iv) handover from WiFi to HSDPA degrades QoE.

Cross-Layer Ultrasound Video Streaming Over Mobile WiMAX and HSUPA Networks

“…It is well known that traditional Quality o f Service can be defined as a set o f specific requirements for a particular service provided to its users by a network technology. In general, the QoS can be divided into two levels [10,30] [32], Improving multimedia QoS in broadband wireless networks is an active research area [31]. In this work, we propose new tradeoff to meet the m-QoS requirements considering the different network layers' parameters.…”

“…The objective o f the agent is to find an optimal policy resulting in the action ak for each Sk, which satisfies the cost function [31,32,97],…”

QoE-Fuzzy VHO Approach for Heterogeneous Wireless Networks (HWNs)

“…These tests help calculate a Mean Opinion Score (MOS), which expresses the mean quality score of a group of users according to ITU-T Rec. P.800 [17] such an evaluation requires time-consuming and expensive subjective tests in real time. Due to these limitations, we will do these tests one time and we will use the resulting value of MOS after experimental tests for the simulations.…”

Quality-of-Experience (QoE) in Emerging Mobile Social Networks

“…However, that assumption may not always correct because QoE is basically evaluated by humans and personal interests and preferences among humans vary a great deal. How and what QoE is exactly affected are still undiscovered and thus, some efforts on experiment-driven research have been made to understand effects of current technologies on QoE and clarify factors influencing QoE [18], [19].…”

“…Mehmood et al [18] contributed a cross-layer QoS and QoE analysis of web video streaming in Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) by implementing a prototype NGMN testbed with WiFi and 3G networks. The authors focused on the objective factor and PSNR (Peak Signal to Noise Ratio) was used as a QoE metric.…”