Improving the Performance of TCP Wireless Video Streaming with a Novel Playback Adaptation Algorithm

In this paper we propose a playback adaptation algorithm for video streaming with TCP in wireless networks where both handoffs and random wireless errors are possible. Primary task of the algorithm is the estimation of the expected latency for the delivery of the lost packets by TCP. After this procedure is performed, the client adjusts the playback rate according to our algorithm so that both buffer underflows and overflows can be avoided. The proposed algorithm in non-intrusive to the protocol stack since it does not require any modifications to the baseline TCP protocol. To validate the basic principles behind our idea, we provide a set of comparative experimental results with other TCP-based streaming systems in terms of the rate of underflow events and the PSNR