Broadband Wireless Multimedia Networks

CHAPTER 7

WIRELESS VIDEO STREAMING

Video traffic constitutes a significant percentage of mobile traffic, more than twice the volume of data and voice traffic. On-the-go video entertainment is rapidly becoming “cloud-based,” allowing users to access on-demand video services at their convenience: anywhere, anytime, and on any device. Such services not only require higher capacities at the server and mobile backhaul, but also reliable network connectivity. Online TV (e.g., ESPN3) makes truly national or global events possible, reaching millions of consumers via handheld devices. For example, the 2012 Super Bowl attracted over 2.1 million unique viewers when the game was streamed online in the United States for the first time. All 302 events of the 2012 summer Olympics were also streamed live in the United States. The emergence of over-the-top service providers (e.g., Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon) offers more video choices to the consumer by providing replacement or supplementary TV services. Currently, Netflix has over 26 million subscribers, while Hulu handles over 30 million online users (over 2 million are paid subscribers) and over 1 billion video streams per month. Content distribution platforms to store, transcode, and deliver petabytes of video on commodity hardware are readily available. However, the popularity of mobile online entertainment creates many challenges for wireless service providers. In particular, 4G cellular networks will need to work in tandem with Wi-Fi hotspots ...