Joint Upload-Download Transmission Scheme for Low-Latency Mobile Live Video Streaming

Variations in wireless network bandwidth will have a significant impact on the performance of mobile live video streaming. When multiple users have different network latency, the way of uploading a higher bitrate version of previously uploaded video segments may improve the quality of experience (QoE) of users with high network latency. In this paper, we propose an upload-download collaborative transmission scheme for mobile live video streaming with the goal of improving the overall QoE of all users. Moreover, we designed a frame-based transmission and scheduling mechanism to reduce the delay experienced by users watching live videos. Then, we design a joint upload-download transmission algorithm based on deep reinforcement learning (DRL) that takes into account the states of both the video upload and download sides. Through extensive simulation in multi-client mobile live video streaming scenarios, the proposed scheme outperforms existing solutions in terms of overall QoE, smoothness, and live video delay.