Hybrid streaming delivery over DVB-H broadcast and WiMAX mobile networks

Hybrid streaming delivery over converged mobile and broadcast networks can enable operators to transmit multimedia contents in a more efficient and flexible way. Consequently, the functions related to hybrid streaming delivery are recently standardized in the IP-based service layer standards for DVB-H, i.e. DVB-IPDC and OMA BCAST standards. In both standards, seamless service switching is one of the key building blocks for achieving hybrid streaming delivery. In this paper, we describe the experiences for implementing the function of streaming service switching between DVB-H broadcast and WiMAX mobile networks according to the above-mentioned standards. In our implementation, instantiating two sets of audio and video codecs in parallel during service switching is avoid for reducing the required hardware resources in a terminal. In addition, the experiment results of streaming service switching are provided to show the performance of our implementation in an extreme test environment where the level of a DVB-H signal could be varied rapidly for simulating the observed room or building penetration loss for a moving terminal.