Optimal settings of maximum transfer unit (MTU) for efficient wireless video communications

Following its success over wired networks, the deployment of the Internet Protocol (IP) over wireless networks is an increasingly popular topic. Protocol optimisations implemented at this level only consider the traditional Internet applications. Path maximum transfer unit (MTU) discovery algorithms are designed to avoid packet fragmentation along the transmission path and hence improve protocol efficiency. However, the design criteria do not take into account the potentially significant influences on the performance over the wireless links. A theoretical analysis is presented of the effect of MTU size upon the performance of wireless video. The theoretical calculation is based on a distortion model, which accurately estimates the video quality in terms of average frame peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR). The theoretical analysis are validated for MPEG-4 coded video transmission over a simulated UMTS network.