A QoS aware cross-layer optimisation for wireless video streaming

One of the key challenges in future multimedia networks is video streaming over wireless channels. The development of scheduler with cross-layer functions not only helps in meeting the quality of service (QoS) requirement but also in optimizing the throughput of the system. In this paper, a quality-driven, network-aware approach for enhanced video streaming is analysed and a novel method called “Dynamic Packet Cross layer Scheduling (DPCS)” is proposed and simulated in a wireless LAN environment. The DPCS algorithm dynamically maps MPEG-4 video packets to 802.11e's appropriate access categories (ACs). The packet scheduling is carried out based on two main parameters: the current threshold value, and queue length. The evaluated performance in terms of PSNR, delay, packet loss ratio and throughput establishes the significance of the DPCS algorithm over existing algorithms.