Network-aware rate adaptation for video streaming

Since the current Internet provides a best-effort service, timely delivery of data is not guaranteed for video streaming applications. Providing quality of service (QoS) in such a setting requires server and client to be network-aware and adaptive. We present a dynamic rate and quality adaptation scheme where the server varies its sending rate (without varying the quality) to adapt to the network and client conditions, and, only as a last resort, does quality adaptation. Our approach is unique because the server´s sending rate is calculated based on the client´s varying demand, and the network status. We do not model the network as a black-box but instead augment endpoint observations with feedback from the network and hence represent its status more precisely. We also propose a method to reduce the amount of control information needed to make adaptation decisions