Performance of Low-Latency DASH and HLS Streaming in Mobile Networks

Reducing end-to-end streaming latency is critical to Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)-based live video streaming. There are currently two technologies in this domain: 1) Low-Latency HTTP Live Streaming (LL-HLS) and 2) Low-Latency Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (LL-DASH). The latter is sometimes also referred to as Low-Latency Common Media Application Format (LL-CMAF), but effectively it is the same architecture. Several existing implementations of streaming players, as well as encoding and packaging tools, support both technologies. Well-known examples include Apple’s AVplayer, Shaka player, HLS.js, DASH.js, FFmpeg, and so on. In this article, we conduct a performance analysis of such streaming systems. We perform a series of live streaming experiments, repeated using identical video content, encoders, encoding profiles, and network conditions, emulated by using traces of 4G LTE mobile networks from two major operators. We capture several performance metrics, such as average stream bitrate, the amounts of downloaded media data, streaming latency, buffering, frequency of stream switching, and so on. Subsequently, we analyze the captured data and describe the observed differences in the performance of LL-HLS and LL-DASH-based systems.