Optimization bandwidth sharing for multimedia transmission supporting scalable video coding

Wired and wireless data networks have witnessed a rapid proliferation of multimedia applications such as live-streaming applications, video conferencing, etc. A desirable key feature for multimedia transmission over multiuser environments with heterogeneous users is the ability of adapting rate and quality of video stream to different QoS conditions. The most efficient approach to address the scalability of multimedia applications is to encode video stream in compliance with Scalable Video Coding (SVC) standard, which is proposed as an extension to H.264/AVC standard. This paper addresses the utility-proportional optimization for multimedia applications that are relying on SVC-encoded video signals. We use the staircase utility function to analytically model the SVC-encoded multimedia applications and formulate the underlying optimization problem. Non-convexity of the optimization problem for such applications makes dual-based approaches incompetent, whereby achieving optimality proves quite challenging. We use a smooth approximation of the utility function to come up with a convex formulation and propose a dual-based distributed algorithm for rate allocation and bandwidth sharing in such scenarios. Numerical results are proposed as the support to the proposed rate control algorithm.