Congestion-aware rate allocation for multipath video streaming over ad hoc wireless networks

For multipath video streaming over ad hoc wireless networks, received video quality is influenced by both the encoder performance and the delayed packet arrivals due to limited bandwidth. We propose a rate allocation scheme to optimize the expected received video quality based on simple models of encoder rate-distortion performance and network rate-congestion tradeoffs. Given the embedded bit-streams of a group of video frames and the cross traffic condition on a given set of paths, a gradient descent method is used to determine the amount of bits to be transmitted over the multiple paths for each frame. Two rate allocation strategies, layered representation and partial repetition are also investigated. Simulation results of video streaming over a 15-node wireless ad hoc network demonstrates the benefit of performing rate allocation optimization over a simple heuristic scheme. It is also shown that while layered representation is more efficient for mild delay constraints, partial repetition is more robust against packet losses.