Light-weight feedback based SVC multicast in multi-carrier wireless data systems

Future 4G cellular networks are featured with high data rates and improved coverage, which will enable real-time video multicast and broadcast services. Scalable video coding with different modulation and coding schemes (MCSs) applied to different video layers is very appropriate for wireless multicast services because it can provide different video quality to different users according to their channel conditions and light-weight feedback on how many packets they have received. It is important to choose an appropriate MCS for each layer, decide how many parity packets in one layer should be transmitted, and determine the resources allocated to multiple video sessions to apply scalable video coding to wireless multicast streaming. This paper proposes an optimal algorithm that finds the optimal total system utility of all users where the utility can be a generic nonnegative, non-decreasing function of the received rate. The results from simulations revealed that our algorithm offer significant improvements to video quality over an optimal algorithm without feedback from users and a naïve algorithm especially in scenarios with multiple video session and limited resources.