Distributed Channel Time Allocation and Rate Adaptation for Multi-User Video Streaming Over Wireless Home Networks

Simultaneous support of multiple video streaming sessions over a shared wireless network requires careful resource allocation to achieve high utilization while dynamically adapting to network and video fluctuations. We propose a distributed algorithm for channel time allocation among multiple video streams, and investigate several heuristic packet pruning schemes for rate adaptation of high-definition (HD) video streams. Simulation results are presented for streaming multiple HD video sequences over an 802.11a network. In comparison with TCP-Friendly Rate Control (TFRC) and a basic scheme without rate adaptation, it is shown that the proposed scheme can sustain higher video quality with lower packet delivery delay.