Broadcasting Images in Wireless Networks

Server-initiated broadcast, compared to unicast transmission, presents excellent scalability to requests by multiple clients in wireless networks. In a wireless network, many mobile clients may have overlapping interests about the same visual information, thus image broadcasting is expected to find acceptance in wireless broadcast networks (WBNs). In this paper, we examine for the first time, to our knowledge, the problem of image broadcasting in WBNs. We propose a novel method that significantly reduces the time latency perceived by clients that request images. We also consider the issue of energy consumption, since portable devices operate with batteries and therefore energy limitations are posed. Experimental results verify the superiority of the proposed method against existing techniques from other domains.