Fine-grained scalable video broadcasting over cellular networks

In layered video broadcasting, if adaptation is only performed by receivers, significant mismatches between a receiver's expected bandwidth and the actually delivered bandwidth could occur as the adaptation unit is a coarse-grained layer. This paper shows that fine-grained sender adaptation, as a complement to receiver adaptation, can significant decrease these mismatches. A formal study on optimal session and layer bandwidth allocations for sender adaptation in a broadband cellular network is carried out. The most fundamental issues associated with layered video broadcasting including system utility and the overhead of layering are considered. A polynomial-time algorithm is derived for optimal allocation. Experimental results show that it can significantly improves the system utility comparing to static allocation algorithms