A jitter-tolerant scheduling algorithm to improve continuity in scalable video streaming

Retrieving and delivering visual content through multimedia devices has increased rapidly in recent years. The quality of video in packet networks is susceptible to certain traffic characteristics: average bandwidth availability, loss, delay and delay variation (jitter). This paper presents a scheduling algorithm that modifies the stream of the Scalable Video Coder (SVC)- an extension of the H.264/AVC. To combat jitter, the algorithm provides unequal look-ahead by safeguarding the base layer (without the need for overhead) of the scalable video. The results of the experiment show that our scheduling algorithm reduces the number of frames with a violated deadline and significantly improves the continuity of video stream without compromising the average Y PSNR.