Cross-Layer Design for Wireless Video Streaming

We present a cross-layer approach to the design of a wireless video streaming system, which includes the development of an adaptive radio link buffer and congestion control algorithm and the adoption of the H.264/SVC scalable video format. The proposed system performs a group-of-pictures (GOP) based post-channel adaptation, which does not require the channel status information at the media server. Video packets are prioritized in a GOP-by-GOP manner based on the dependence relation within a GOP. We employ H.264/SVC for the video stream preparation to provide the flexibility and adaptability of compressed video data. The priority information is conveyed in the header extension of the network abstraction layer unit (NALU) of H.264/SVC, which is parsed by a media aware network element (MANE) to realize an efficient transmission and congestion control. The performance of the proposed algorithm is verified by the computer simulation.