Distributed coordination of multiple media flows in WiFi networks

Due to the limited bandwidth resource in WiFi networks, it is challenging to keep media streaming persistent at the existence of other competing traffics for the quality of consumer experience. The coordination of multiple media flows (e.g., rate adaptation, scheduling, etc) thus plays a crucial role for persistent media streaming without hurting other flows. In this paper, by employing the notion of CORE (COngestion Residual timE), we propose a distributed coordination scheme of multiple media flows for practical WiFi networks with diverse mobile smart devices. With this proposed coordination scheme, every mobile smart device controls the rates and the sequence of packet transmissions for all competing flows in a distributed manner. From extensive experiments with a realized prototype, the proposed scheme provides better quality of experiences by maintaining the persistency of media quality without hurting other competing flows¹.