WiSE video: using in-band wireless loss notification to improve rate-controlled video streaming

Both data and multimedia applications over the Internet are expected to perform some kind of congestion control, typically using packet loss as an indication for congestion. However, when packets are lost due to wireless errors, decreasing the rate unnecessarily harms the application's performance. The paper proposes to use an in-band notification mechanism, called WiSE (wireless signaling via ECN), to distinguish wireless errors from congestion losses and improve the performance of rate-controlled video streamed over wireless links. A WiSE agent on the wireless network identifies wireless errors and piggy-backs this information onto other video packets. The WiSE-aware video source can benefit from this notification (1) by avoiding unnecessary decreases in the sending rate in response to wireless errors, and (2) by accurately adjusting the error resilience for the wireless link. Simulations demonstrate that WiSE provides a significant improvement in video quality over a wide range of conditions.