Smooth adaptive playout control for synchronized multicast media streaming

Recently we have proposed a synchronized multicast media streaming framework employing adaptive playout which is based on time-scale modification of audio. In our previous scheme, the playout speed at each client is varied to control intra/inter-client synchronization accuracy and buffer occupancy level by using adaptive playout. In this paper, we update the previous adaptive playout control scheme focusing on the buffer management aspect. The proposed scheme consists of three stages. First, adaptive playout control has a smoothing stage which gradually adjusts playout speed. Secondly, a variation stage changes the playout speed to the limit (i.e., till maximum playout factor) so that buffer occupancy level is stabilized back around target level. Finally, a stabilization stage needs to maintain the buffer occupancy level around target level. Simulation results show the proposed scheme can enhance the performance of buffer control while satisfying the synchronization need.