Robust opportunistic broadcast scheduling for scalable video streaming

In this paper we design a robust opportunistic scheduler to be implemented at the base station in a cellular network for broadcast media streaming applications. The scheduling mechanism operates based on information on both the average and the instantaneous user distributions, and on radio link channel quality, obtained through the cellular uplink channel. Video streams are encoded into multiple scalable video layers, that are split into video packets opportunistically scheduled at the base station with the goal of minimizing the wireless resource usage while keeping the overall target Quality of Service (QoS) in the cell. We finally discuss potential extensions of this framework to more sophisticated scheduling solutions for broadcast video delivery over next generation cellular networks.