On Cross-Induced Congestion in Media Streaming

Packet loss has always been an effective indication of congestion in packet-switched networks. This is because the application, especially the TCP protocol, attempts to transmit packets to the maximum available bandwidth. However, media streaming applications have an intrinsic bandwidth requirement that is constrained by the streaming source. This characteristic indicates that media streaming is less likely to cause self-induced congestion. In stead, the congestion could be cross-induced. Cross-induced congestion means that the increasing transmission rate by the sending source relatively makes no impact on the ongoing congestion. In this paper, we describe cross-induced congestion that could happen in media streaming. We conduct a simulation study to prove the idea. We then discuss the implication of the study that it is possible for the media streaming application to increase the transmission rate (if it has a benefilt) in the presence of congestion as indicated by packet loss, ifisuch congestionis cross-induced.