Optimized ASMIRA - Advanced QoE Video Streaming for Mobile Satellite Communications Systems

We present A Quality of Experience (QoE) video adaptive solution formulated such that it takes into account the limitations of the target mobile satellite network and the particular use-case scenario and end-user requirements for situational awareness. A novel crossapplication/transport layer design take this into account, and secures both user control over priorities as well as an adaptive mode with feedback on transfer network capacity status, so the video capacity can be adapted accordingly. Performance evaluation of the solution is carried out using an experimental platform such that the cross layer design together with several kinds of videos and network behavior can be tested. The numerical results show the benefit of the QoE optimization approach, compared to a best case non-adaptive solution, with both Quality of Service QoS and QoE metrics. The solution tracks abrupt drops in the network with as low 15% adaptation rate as well as variations over time. In particular, videos with more movement show more improvement in QoE, and quality improves 10% compared to a best case non-adaptive solution guessing the initial status of the network. I. Introduction he motivation for this work is formed by situations where available bandwidth is a priori unknown and potentially varying during use, such as in mobile satellite systems when using Best Effort Quality of Service, and where video serves the purpose of carrying information for situational awareness. Best Effort is of interest as costs are substantially less than for guaranteed services, it is easier to vary video quality and rates depending on relevance at a given moment and often, as in BGAN, the maximum rates can often be higher for many common types of terminals. In this paper we present ASMIRA (Advanced System for Moving Image Reception with Adaptation) - an adaptive solution for video transmission designed to optimize Quality of Experience (QoE) in time varying networks and validate its benefits with an evaluation of performance for mobile satellite communications systems. The application is targeted for Situational Awareness, and situations like safety, security, disaster and emergency management. While this work is mostly analytical, validations of performance has been carried out also using realistic satellite traces. The primary strength of our work Iies in the fact that it has been formulated as an optimization mechanism that takes into account the limitations of the target network, the particular use-case scenario and the end user requirements. The optimization mechanism targets two issues: time-varying conditions of the network link and video quality. The optimization makes use of cross-layer signaling from the transport layer in order to update the optimal adaptation values of the video. Benefits of this mechanism are assessed through extensive testing over an experimental platform specifically implemented for our scenario. This platform provided a close-to-solution test bed with the flexibility of the lab1 PhD candidate, Dept. of Telecommunications and Systems Engineering. Researcher at AnsuR Technologies.