End-to-end frame-rate adaptive streaming of video data

We propose a best-effort video delivery scheme that can be deployed on networks in use today, including Ethernet LANs or the Internet. This scheme detects congestion by measuring the buffer occupancy and loss rate and estimates available channel bandwidth by measuring the incoming data rate at the client receiver. The frame request rate is adjusted accordingly when congestion is detected. No extra support (such as priority control or resource reservation) is required from the underlying network. The scheme is designed for the delivery of MPEG-1/MPEG-2 video streams. Various experimental settings have demonstrated the effectiveness of this scheme.