Providing QoS for high definition video transmission using IP Traffic Flow Description option

A real-time multimedia transmission requires the QoS guarantees to preserve the real-time character of the stream. Nowadays, we have several methods for QoS provisioning in IP networks. In this paper we propose a novel method for dynamic network resource allocation using the IP Traffic Flow Description option. Our solution deals with the problem of the trade-off between link utilization and the quality of real-time service. We tested the proposed method using the emulation system, which consists of a streaming server, a network emulator and video receivers. As network emulator, the Berkeley's ns-2 simulator (working in emulation mode) was used. The streaming server and the video receiver were built on the base VLC software. The results of the experiment performed in the test environment show that the proposed solution ensures both satisfactory QoS for HD video and good link utilization.