Advanced Video Communications over Wireless Networks (Zhu, C.; 2013) [Book Reviews]

This book explores the use of advanced video communications in wireless networks. Wireless devices are fast becoming the device of choice for the majority of computing users. Smartphones, tablets, and notebooks, are changing the Internet-consumer paradigm. Compared to the recent past where most Internet traffic requests emanated from fixed wired devices (desktops/servers), today a majority of the requests are from fixed/mobile wireless devices. A point of note is that the majority of this traffic would consist of video; global IP video traffic will be 79 percent of all consumer Internet traffic in 2018. In addition, the nature of video traffic will change from single-source video on demand-like traffic to multi-source, interactive video communication; each mobile device can become a video source in the future Internet. This has made advancements in wireless/mobile video applications important. Video communication over wireless has to grapple with several stringent constraints: distributed sourcing, resource constrained devices, heterogeneous communication technologies, limited channel capacity, and high error rates in data delivery. This requires a holistic study of video coding and delivery to meet the quality of service (QoS) requirements. In this book, the editors have presented a compilation of 15 peer-reviewed chapters from several well known researchers in the area of wireless video technologies to provide an overview of the state of the art, challenges, and emerging trends.