GTube: Geo-predictive video streaming over HTTP in mobile environments

Abstract

Mobile video streaming sometimes suffers from playback interruptions which are typically due to considerable network bandwidth variations that a user may experience when s/he travels along a route. Segmented adaptive HTTP streaming that switches between video streams encoded at different bitrates - and hence different quality levels - can be used to alleviate the issues of variable bandwidth. An important issue with respect to users' perceived experience is how the system schedules the quality levels to match the endto-end network bandwidth capacity. It is very beneficial if the application can estimate the future network conditions in advance, and therefore perform quality control and buffer control wisely. This work describes GTube, a video streaming system for receivers equipped with a GPS positioning sensor in mobile environments. The available network bandwidth for each location is collected by mobile users and then this data along with the measured locations are uploaded and recorded in a server. Mobile devices that stream video can send queries to the server in order to better predict the near-future bandwidth availability and plan quality adaptations accordingly. Copyright 2014 ACM.