Network-assisted multipath DASH using the distributed decision engine

Making networks aware of applications and vice versa is a current trend in the design of emerging network management and service architectures. Additionally, new protocols and application adaptation approaches have been proposed in order to enhance the transmission of Quality of Service (QoS) sensitive data in the best effort Internet. This paper contributes to the field by studying means to improve the quality and availability of video streaming services in multi-access networks through controlled bitrate adaptation and multipath capabilities. The paper proposes a network management system to achieve advanced control and improved performance for multipath adaptive HTTP video streaming in multi-access networks. The management system builds upon the Distributed Decision Engine (DDE) framework and it is partially implemented and evaluated in the paper using a multi-access network testbed.