Scalable video streaming over TV white spaces using Cognitive Radio technology

The objective of this paper is to provide uninterrupted scalable video streaming to the Cognitive Radio (CR) users by transmitting video frames over multiple channels in hybrid overlay and underlay modes. Since the underlay model is characterized by low power and low bitrate, I-frames of the base layer is an attractive solution. Our contribution is to rank the available spectrum bands based on some parameters such as packet loss, channel capacity, delay, and jitter. Then, the base layer frames as well as the enhancement layer(s) are transmitted without interruption over available high rank spectrum bands. By continues spectrum monitoring, the system creates a descending ranked list of available channels. At the time of arrival of incumbents, the system checks the list and switches to another available spectrum band even with lower rank. Whereas, the I-frames have higher priority, if there is no more channel with acceptable quality, then the I-frames are transmitted in underlay mode. Our simulation results show that the quality of the received video is guaranteed by assuring of I-frame streaming in hybrid mode in compare to pure overlay mode.