Content-aware resource allocation and packet scheduling for video transmission over wireless networks

A cross-layer packet scheduling scheme that streams pre-encoded video over wireless downlink packet access networks to multiple users is presented. The scheme can be used with the emerging wireless standards such as HSDPA and IEEE 802.16. A gradient based scheduling scheme is used in which user data rates are dynamically adjusted based on channel quality as well as the gradients of a utility function. The user utilities are designed as a function of the distortion of the received video. This enables distortion-aware packet scheduling both within and across multiple users. The utility takes into account decoder error concealment, an important component in deciding the received quality of the video. We consider both simple and complex error concealment techniques. Simulation results show that the gradient based scheduling framework combined with the content-aware utility functions provides a viable method for downlink packet scheduling as it can significantly outperform current content-independent techniques. Further tests determine the sensitivity of the system to the initial video encoding schemes, as well as to non-real-time packet ordering techniques.