Reducing Video Interruption Probability with Cooperative Heterogeneous Networks

In this paper, we consider cooperative video transmission approaches to avoid video interruptions in a wireless real-time video streaming system. The target heterogeneous cooperative system consists of a direct link between a source and destination along with a selected number of parallel relay links. The relay link is a combination of a wide-area link and short-range link which operate in different frequency ranges. Previous contributions focus either on noncooperative video streaming systems using buffer preloading or cooperative systems which do not consider network delay jitter and its effect on interrupting video transmission. In our work, the potential gain in decreasing the interruption probability via different cooperative packet allocation protocols is evaluated analytically and with simulations, using appropriate methods from the queueing theory. We provide new insights on how the user heterogeneity in terms of time-varying packet delays influences the possibility to cooperatively solve the user problem arising from frequent video interruptions.