Cloud-Based Video Communication and Networking: An Architectural Overview

Cloud-based video communication and networking has emerged as a promising new research paradigm to significantly improve the quality of experience for video consumers. An architectural overview of this promising research area was presented. This overview with an end-to-end partition of the cloud-based video system into major blocks with respect to their locations from the center of the cloud to the edge of the cloud was started. Following this partition, existing research efforts on how the principles of cloud computing can provide unprecedented support to 1) video servers, 2) content delivery networks, and 3) edge networks within the global cloud video ecosystems were examined. Moreover, a case study was exemplfied on an edge cloud assisted HTTP adaptive video streaming to demonstrate the effectiveness of cloud computing support. Finally, by envisioning a list of future research topics in cloud-based video communication and networking a coclusion is made.