Fine-grained scalable video broadcasting over cellular networks

In layered video broadcasting, if adaptation is performed only by receivers, significant mismatches between a receiver's expected bandwidth and the actually delivered bandwidth could occur as the adaptation unit is a coarse-grained layer. The paper shows that fine-grained sender adaptation, as a complement to receiver adaptation, can significantly decrease these mismatches. A formal study on optimal session and layer bandwidth allocations for sender adaptation in a broadband cellular network is carried out. The most fundamental issues associated with layered video broadcasting, including system utility and the overhead of layering, are considered. A polynomial-time algorithm is derived for optimal allocation. Experimental results show that it can significantly improve the system utility compared to static allocation algorithms.