Minimizing Distortion for Multipath Video Streaming over ad hoc Networks

We present a video distortion model analyzing the per-formance of multipath routing for low latency video stream-ing, in bandwidth-limited ad hoc networks. In such envi-ronments, a single node transmitting multimedia data may have an impact on the overall network conditions and may need to limit its rate to achieve the highest sustainable video quality. For this purpose, optimal routing solutions which seek to minimize congestion are attractive as they make use of the resources efficiently. To predict the end-to-end rate-distortion tradeoff, we develop a model which captures the impact of quantization and of packet loss on the overall video quality. Network simulations are performed to con-firm the validity of the model in different streaming scenar-ios. 1