Design of a layer-based video streaming system over software-defined networks

Software Defined Networking (SDN) technology provides flexibility in routing of flows by separating data and control plane of computer networks. In addition to that, realtime traffic information can be inferred by using SDN. The advantages offered by SDN technology can be utilized to enhance the performance of network applications such as video streaming systems. In this paper, we propose a layered video streaming system to provide an increase in the performance achieved by video streaming clients running in an SDN domain. SDN controller runs an optimization algorithm that determines optimal video codec type and the number of layers based on the network conditions. Hence, the clients are directed to select appropriate video codec under the constraint of measured network conditions by SDN controller. We tested the performance of the proposed system by comparing with different approaches. The simulation results show that the performance of the proposed system outperforms the traditional best effort approach.