Quality-aware Video Streaming over Wireless Mesh Networks with Optimal Dynamic Routing and Time Allocation

In this paper, a general quality model for scalable coded video streaming over wireless mesh networks is applied in the paper for determining the cross-layer transmission strategies over wireless multi-hop networks. Our proposed solution is enabled by the scalable coding of the video content (i. e. users can transmit and consume video at different quality layers). The adaptive cross-layer strategies - application layer packet scheduling, the policy for choosing a relay, the MAC retransmission strategies, the PHY modulation and coding schemes - are determined per packet, at each intermediate node of the network, in a distributed manner. Unlike the conventional end-to-end flow-based centralized approach, the main component of the proposed solution is a distributed dynamic routing algorithm, called self-learning policy which selects the routing relays and the corresponding time allocation for the various packets. We show that our proposed dynamic routing approach significantly outperforms the static optimization algorithm, since it provides the ability to alleviate the congestion in the changing network.