Cycle-Based Rate Control for One-Way and Interactive Video Communications Over Wireless Channels

We propose a joint source-rate/channel-code control scheme for streaming video over a wireless channel. The scheme is designed to maximize the achievable source rate while guaranteeing an upper bound on the probability of starvation at the playback buffer. It can be applied to both one-way and interactive video communications. Rate control is performed adaptively on a per-cycle basis, where a cycle consists of a "good" channel period and the ensuing "bad" period. This cycle-based approach has two advantages. First, it reduces the fluctuations in the source bit rate, ensuring smooth variations in video quality. Second, it makes it possible to derive simple expressions for the starvation probability at the playback buffer, which we use to determine the optimal source rate and channel code for the good and bad periods of the subsequent cycle