Adaptive rate control in IPTV applications over wireless channels

In this paper we propose an adaptive source and channel coding technique for real-time IPTV streaming applications over unreliable slowly-varying wireless channels. The proposed technique ensures continuity in the video playback under unpredictable channel variations by maximizing the source bit rate at the encoder while reducing events of starvation at the playback buffer. When compared to a non-adaptive technique, the proposed method slightly increased the frames end-to-end delay without exceeding the application-required delay threshold, but significantly reduced the starvation events at the decoder buffer, thus improving the quality of the playback process.