On video multicast over wireless LANs

Author

Gopal, Shruti ; Ramaswamy, Kumar ; Wang, Charles

Author_Institution

WINLAB, Rutgers Univ., NJ

Volume

2

fYear

2004

fDate

30-30 June 2004

Firstpage

1063

Abstract

In this paper, we explore and analyze the feasibility of current generation IEEE 802.11b wireless networks to sustain video multicast applications. We assess bandwidth efficiency to transport packets of various sizes over 802.11b WLAN in distributed coordination function (DCF) mode and derive corresponding theoretical maximum data rates. Due to the overhead associated with the different protocol layers, the efficiency of transport can vary widely with different packet sizes. By controlled WLAN experimentation the effect of this phenomenon on video traffic is studied. Application to MPEG4-AVC streams show that the packet overhead in 802.11 DCF mode causes a significant bottleneck for simultaneous multicast streams. We conclude with several suggestions to alleviate this problem including operating in 802.11 PCF mode, using a statistical multiplexer and improving design of queues in the wireless access point

Keywords

IEEE standards; multicast protocols; multimedia communication; packet radio networks; queueing theory; transport protocols; video coding; video streaming; wireless LAN; IEEE 802.11b wireless networks; MPEG4-AVC streams; PCF mode; WLAN; bandwidth efficiency; distributed coordination function; maximum data rates; packet overhead; packet sizes; protocol layers; queue design; simultaneous multicast streams; statistical multiplexer; video multicast; video traffic; wireless LAN; wireless access point; Bandwidth; Communication system traffic control; Delay; Local area networks; Streaming media; Transform coding; Video compression; Wide area networks; Wireless LAN; Wireless sensor networks;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Multimedia and Expo, 2004. ICME '04. 2004 IEEE International Conference on

Conference_Location

Taipei

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8603-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICME.2004.1394392

Filename

1394392