Multi-user Video Streaming over Multi-hop Wireless Networks: A Cross-Layer Priority Queuing Scheme

In this paper, we propose a distributed, end-to-end, integrated cross-layer scheme to maximize the decoded video quality of multiple users engaged in simultaneous real-time streaming sessions over a multi-hop wireless network. Our algorithm explicitly considers the distortion impact and delay constraints in assigning priorities to the various packets and then relies on priority queuing to drive the optimization of the various users¿ transmission strategies across the multi-hop network. The proposed solution is enabled by the scalable coding of the video content and the design of cross-layer optimization strategies including a dynamic routing algorithm, which allow priority-based adaptation to varying channel conditions. Our proposed delay-driven, packet-based transmission is superior in terms of both network scalability and video quality to previous static flow-based solutions based on predetermined paths and rate requirements.