Os constantes avanços nas áreas de transmissão e processamento de dados ao longo dos últimos anos permitiram a criação de diversas aplicações e serviços baseados em dados multimídia, como streaming de vídeo, videoconferências, aulas remotas e IPTV. Além disso, avanços nas demais áreas da computação e engenharias, possibilitaram a construção de uma enorme diversidade de dispositivos de acesso a esses serviços, desde computadores pessoais até celulares, para citar os mais utilizados atualmente. Muitas dessas aplicações e dispositivos estão amplamente difundidos hoje em dia, e, ao mesmo tempo em que a tecnologia avança, os usuários tornam-se mais exigentes, buscando sempre melhor qualidade nos serviços que utilizam. Devido à grande variedade de redes e dispositivos atuais, uma dificuldade existente é possibilitar o acesso universal a uma transmissão. Uma alternativa criada é utilizar transmissão de vídeo escalável com IP multicast e controlada por mecanismos para adaptabilidade e controle de congestionamento. O produto final dessas transmissões mulimídia são os próprios dados multimídia (vídeo e áudio, principalmente) que o usuário está recebendo, portanto a qualidade destes dados é fundamental para um bom desempenho do sistema e satisfação dos usuários. Este trabalho apresenta um estudo de avaliações subjetivas de qualidade aplicadas em sequências de vídeo codificadas através da extensão escalável do padrão H.264 (SVC). Foi executado um conjunto de testes para avaliar, principalmente, os efeitos da instabilidade da transmissão (variação do número de camadas de vídeo recebidas) e a influência dos três métodos de escalabilidade (espacial, temporal e de qualidade) na qualidade dos vídeos. As definições foram baseadas em um sistema de transmissão em camadas com utilização de protocolos para adaptabilidade e controle de congestionamento. Para execução das avaliações subjetivas foi feito o uso da metodologia ACR-HRR e recomendações das normas ITU-R Rec. BT.500 e ITU-T Rec. P.910. Os resultados mostram que, diferente do esperado, a instabilidade não provoca grandes alterações na qualidade subjetiva dos vídeos e que o método de escalabilidade temporal tende a apresentar qualidade bastante inferior aos outros métodos. As principais contribuições deste trabalho estão nos resultados obtidos nas avaliações, além da metodologia utilizada durante o desenvolvimento do trabalho (definição do plano de avaliação, uso das ferramentas como o JSVM, seleção do material de teste, execução das avaliações, entre outros), das aplicações desenvolvidas, da definição de alguns trabalhos futuros e de possíveis objetivos para avaliações de qualidade. / The constant advances in multimedia processing and transmission over the past years have enabled the creation of several applications and services based on multimedia data, such as video streaming, teleconference, remote classes and IPTV. Futhermore, a big variety of devices, that goes from personal computers to mobile phones, are now capable of receiving these transmissions and displaying the multimedia data. Most of these applications are widely adopted nowadays and, at the same time the technology advances, the user are becoming more demanding about the quality of the services they use. Given the diversity of devices and networks available today, one of the big challenges of these multimedia systems is to be able to adapt the transmission to the receivers' characteristics and conditions. A suitable solution to provide this adaptation is the integration of scalable video coding with layered transmission. As the final product in these multimedia systems are the multimedia data that is presented to the user, the quality of these data will define the performace of the system and the users' satisfaction. This paper presents a study of subjective quality of scalable video sequences, coded using the scalable extension of the H.264 standard (SVC). A group of experiments was performed to measure, primarily, the efeects that the transmission instability (variations in the number of video layers received) has in the video quality and the relationship between the three scalability methods (spatial, temporal and quality) in terms of subjective quality. The decisions taken to model the tests were based on layered transmission systems that use protocols for adaptability and congestion control. To run the subjective assessments we used the ACR-HRR methodology and recommendations given by ITU-R Rec. BT.500 and ITU-T Rec. P.910. The results show that the instability modelled does not causes significant alterations on the overall video subjective quality if compared to a stable video and that the temporal scalability usually produces videos with worse quality than the spatial and quality methods, the latter being the one with the better quality. The main contributions presented in this work are the results obtained in the subjective assessments. Moreover, are also considered as contributions the methodology used throughout the entire work (including the test plan definition, the use of tools as JSVM, the test material selection and the steps taken during the assessment), some applications that were developed, the definition of future works and the specification of some problems that can also be solved with subjective quality evaluations.

Os constantes avanços nas áreas de transmissão e processamento de dados ao longo dos últimos anos permitiram a criação de diversas aplicações e serviços baseados em dados multimídia, como streaming de vídeo, videoconferências, aulas remotas e IPTV. Além disso, avanços nas demais áreas da computação e engenharias, possibilitaram a construção de uma enorme diversidade de dispositivos de acesso a esses serviços, desde computadores pessoais até celulares, para citar os mais utilizados atualmente. Muitas dessas aplicações e dispositivos estão amplamente difundidos hoje em dia, e, ao mesmo tempo em que a tecnologia avança, os usuários tornam-se mais exigentes, buscando sempre melhor qualidade nos serviços que utilizam. Devido à grande variedade de redes e dispositivos atuais, uma dificuldade existente é possibilitar o acesso universal a uma transmissão. Uma alternativa criada é utilizar transmissão de vídeo escalável com IP multicast e controlada por mecanismos para adaptabilidade e controle de congestionamento. O produto final dessas transmissões mulimídia são os próprios dados multimídia (vídeo e áudio, principalmente) que o usuário está recebendo, portanto a qualidade destes dados é fundamental para um bom desempenho do sistema e satisfação dos usuários. Este trabalho apresenta um estudo de avaliações subjetivas de qualidade aplicadas em sequências de vídeo codificadas através da extensão escalável do padrão H.264 (SVC). Foi executado um conjunto de testes para avaliar, principalmente, os efeitos da instabilidade da transmissão (variação do número de camadas de vídeo recebidas) e a influência dos três métodos de escalabilidade (espacial, temporal e de qualidade) na qualidade dos vídeos. As definições foram baseadas em um sistema de transmissão em camadas com utilização de protocolos para adaptabilidade e controle de congestionamento. Para execução das avaliações subjetivas foi feito o uso da metodologia ACR-HRR e recomendações das normas ITU-R Rec. BT.500 e ITU-T Rec. P.910. Os resultados mostram que, diferente do esperado, a instabilidade não provoca grandes alterações na qualidade subjetiva dos vídeos e que o método de escalabilidade temporal tende a apresentar qualidade bastante inferior aos outros métodos. As principais contribuições deste trabalho estão nos resultados obtidos nas avaliações, além da metodologia utilizada durante o desenvolvimento do trabalho (definição do plano de avaliação, uso das ferramentas como o JSVM, seleção do material de teste, execução das avaliações, entre outros), das aplicações desenvolvidas, da definição de alguns trabalhos futuros e de possíveis objetivos para avaliações de qualidade. / The constant advances in multimedia processing and transmission over the past years have enabled the creation of several applications and services based on multimedia data, such as video streaming, teleconference, remote classes and IPTV. Futhermore, a big variety of devices, that goes from personal computers to mobile phones, are now capable of receiving these transmissions and displaying the multimedia data. Most of these applications are widely adopted nowadays and, at the same time the technology advances, the user are becoming more demanding about the quality of the services they use. Given the diversity of devices and networks available today, one of the big challenges of these multimedia systems is to be able to adapt the transmission to the receivers' characteristics and conditions. A suitable solution to provide this adaptation is the integration of scalable video coding with layered transmission. As the final product in these multimedia systems are the multimedia data that is presented to the user, the quality of these data will define the performace of the system and the users' satisfaction. This paper presents a study of subjective quality of scalable video sequences, coded using the scalable extension of the H.264 standard (SVC). A group of experiments was performed to measure, primarily, the efeects that the transmission instability (variations in the number of video layers received) has in the video quality and the relationship between the three scalability methods (spatial, temporal and quality) in terms of subjective quality. The decisions taken to model the tests were based on layered transmission systems that use protocols for adaptability and congestion control. To run the subjective assessments we used the ACR-HRR methodology and recommendations given by ITU-R Rec. BT.500 and ITU-T Rec. P.910. The results show that the instability modelled does not causes significant alterations on the overall video subjective quality if compared to a stable video and that the temporal scalability usually produces videos with worse quality than the spatial and quality methods, the latter being the one with the better quality. The main contributions presented in this work are the results obtained in the subjective assessments. Moreover, are also considered as contributions the methodology used throughout the entire work (including the test plan definition, the use of tools as JSVM, the test material selection and the steps taken during the assessment), some applications that were developed, the definition of future works and the specification of some problems that can also be solved with subjective quality evaluations.

Visando atuação flexível em redes heterogêneas, modernos sistemas multimídia podem adotar o conceito da codificação escalável, onde o fluxo de vídeo é composto por múltiplas camadas, cada qual complementando e aprimorando gradualmente as características de exibição, de forma adaptativa às capacidades de cada receptor. Atualmente, a especificação H.264/SVC representa o estado da arte da área, por sua eficiência de codificação aprimorada, porém demanda recursos computacionais extremamente elevados. Neste contexto, o presente trabalho apresenta uma arquitetura de projeto colaborativo de hardware e software, que explora as características dos diversos algoritmos internos do codificador H.264/SVC, buscando um adequado balanceamento entre as duas tecnologias (hardware e software) para a implementação prática de um codificador escalável de até 16 camadas em formato de 1920x1080 pixels. A partir de um modelo do código de referência H.264/SVC, refinado para reduzir tempos de codificação, foram definidas estratégias de particionamento de módulos e integração entre entidades de software e hardware, avaliando-se questões como dependência de dados e potencial de paralelismo dos algoritmos, assim como restrições práticas das interfaces de comunicação e acessos à memória. Em hardware foram implementados módulos de transformadas, quantização, filtro anti-blocagem e predição entre camadas, permanecendo em software funções de gerência do sistema, entropia, controle de taxa e interface com usuário. A solução completa obtida, integrando módulos em hardware, sintetizados em uma placa de desenvolvimento, com o software de referência refinado, comprova a validade da proposta, pelos significativos ganhos de desempenho registrados, mostrando-se como uma solução adequada para aplicações que exijam codificação escalável tempo real. / In order to support heterogeneous networks and distinct devices simultaneously, modern multimedia systems can adopt the scalability concept, when the video stream is composed by multiple layers, each one being responsible for gradually enhance the video exhibition quality, according to specific receiver capabilities. Currently the H.264/SVC specification can be considered the state-of-art in this area, by improving the coding efficiency, but, in the other hand, impacting in extremely high computational demands. Based on that, this work presents a hardware/software co-design architecture, which explores the characteristics of H.264/SVC internal algorithms, aiming the right balancing between both technologies (hardware and software) in order to generate a practical scalable encoder implementation, able to process up to 16 layers in 1920x1080 pixels format. Based in an H.264/SVC reference code model, which was refined in order to reduce global encoding time, the approaches for module partitioning and data integration between hardware and software were defined. The proposed methodology took into account characteristics like data dependency and inherent possibility of parallelism, as well practical restrictions like influence of communication interfaces and memory accesses. Particularly, the modules of transforms, quantization, deblocking and inter-layer prediction were implemented in hardware, while the functions of system management, entropy, rate control and user interface were kept in software. The whole solution, which was obtained integrating hardware modules, synthesized in a development board, with the refined H.264/SVC reference code, validates the proposal, by the significant performance gains registered, indicating it as an adequate solution for applications which require real-time video scalable coding.

Visando atuação flexível em redes heterogêneas, modernos sistemas multimídia podem adotar o conceito da codificação escalável, onde o fluxo de vídeo é composto por múltiplas camadas, cada qual complementando e aprimorando gradualmente as características de exibição, de forma adaptativa às capacidades de cada receptor. Atualmente, a especificação H.264/SVC representa o estado da arte da área, por sua eficiência de codificação aprimorada, porém demanda recursos computacionais extremamente elevados. Neste contexto, o presente trabalho apresenta uma arquitetura de projeto colaborativo de hardware e software, que explora as características dos diversos algoritmos internos do codificador H.264/SVC, buscando um adequado balanceamento entre as duas tecnologias (hardware e software) para a implementação prática de um codificador escalável de até 16 camadas em formato de 1920x1080 pixels. A partir de um modelo do código de referência H.264/SVC, refinado para reduzir tempos de codificação, foram definidas estratégias de particionamento de módulos e integração entre entidades de software e hardware, avaliando-se questões como dependência de dados e potencial de paralelismo dos algoritmos, assim como restrições práticas das interfaces de comunicação e acessos à memória. Em hardware foram implementados módulos de transformadas, quantização, filtro anti-blocagem e predição entre camadas, permanecendo em software funções de gerência do sistema, entropia, controle de taxa e interface com usuário. A solução completa obtida, integrando módulos em hardware, sintetizados em uma placa de desenvolvimento, com o software de referência refinado, comprova a validade da proposta, pelos significativos ganhos de desempenho registrados, mostrando-se como uma solução adequada para aplicações que exijam codificação escalável tempo real. / In order to support heterogeneous networks and distinct devices simultaneously, modern multimedia systems can adopt the scalability concept, when the video stream is composed by multiple layers, each one being responsible for gradually enhance the video exhibition quality, according to specific receiver capabilities. Currently the H.264/SVC specification can be considered the state-of-art in this area, by improving the coding efficiency, but, in the other hand, impacting in extremely high computational demands. Based on that, this work presents a hardware/software co-design architecture, which explores the characteristics of H.264/SVC internal algorithms, aiming the right balancing between both technologies (hardware and software) in order to generate a practical scalable encoder implementation, able to process up to 16 layers in 1920x1080 pixels format. Based in an H.264/SVC reference code model, which was refined in order to reduce global encoding time, the approaches for module partitioning and data integration between hardware and software were defined. The proposed methodology took into account characteristics like data dependency and inherent possibility of parallelism, as well practical restrictions like influence of communication interfaces and memory accesses. Particularly, the modules of transforms, quantization, deblocking and inter-layer prediction were implemented in hardware, while the functions of system management, entropy, rate control and user interface were kept in software. The whole solution, which was obtained integrating hardware modules, synthesized in a development board, with the refined H.264/SVC reference code, validates the proposal, by the significant performance gains registered, indicating it as an adequate solution for applications which require real-time video scalable coding.

Os constantes avanços nas áreas de transmissão e processamento de dados ao longo dos últimos anos permitiram a criação de diversas aplicações e serviços baseados em dados multimídia, como streaming de vídeo, videoconferências, aulas remotas e IPTV. Além disso, avanços nas demais áreas da computação e engenharias, possibilitaram a construção de uma enorme diversidade de dispositivos de acesso a esses serviços, desde computadores pessoais até celulares, para citar os mais utilizados atualmente. Muitas dessas aplicações e dispositivos estão amplamente difundidos hoje em dia, e, ao mesmo tempo em que a tecnologia avança, os usuários tornam-se mais exigentes, buscando sempre melhor qualidade nos serviços que utilizam. Devido à grande variedade de redes e dispositivos atuais, uma dificuldade existente é possibilitar o acesso universal a uma transmissão. Uma alternativa criada é utilizar transmissão de vídeo escalável com IP multicast e controlada por mecanismos para adaptabilidade e controle de congestionamento. O produto final dessas transmissões mulimídia são os próprios dados multimídia (vídeo e áudio, principalmente) que o usuário está recebendo, portanto a qualidade destes dados é fundamental para um bom desempenho do sistema e satisfação dos usuários. Este trabalho apresenta um estudo de avaliações subjetivas de qualidade aplicadas em sequências de vídeo codificadas através da extensão escalável do padrão H.264 (SVC). Foi executado um conjunto de testes para avaliar, principalmente, os efeitos da instabilidade da transmissão (variação do número de camadas de vídeo recebidas) e a influência dos três métodos de escalabilidade (espacial, temporal e de qualidade) na qualidade dos vídeos. As definições foram baseadas em um sistema de transmissão em camadas com utilização de protocolos para adaptabilidade e controle de congestionamento. Para execução das avaliações subjetivas foi feito o uso da metodologia ACR-HRR e recomendações das normas ITU-R Rec. BT.500 e ITU-T Rec. P.910. Os resultados mostram que, diferente do esperado, a instabilidade não provoca grandes alterações na qualidade subjetiva dos vídeos e que o método de escalabilidade temporal tende a apresentar qualidade bastante inferior aos outros métodos. As principais contribuições deste trabalho estão nos resultados obtidos nas avaliações, além da metodologia utilizada durante o desenvolvimento do trabalho (definição do plano de avaliação, uso das ferramentas como o JSVM, seleção do material de teste, execução das avaliações, entre outros), das aplicações desenvolvidas, da definição de alguns trabalhos futuros e de possíveis objetivos para avaliações de qualidade. / The constant advances in multimedia processing and transmission over the past years have enabled the creation of several applications and services based on multimedia data, such as video streaming, teleconference, remote classes and IPTV. Futhermore, a big variety of devices, that goes from personal computers to mobile phones, are now capable of receiving these transmissions and displaying the multimedia data. Most of these applications are widely adopted nowadays and, at the same time the technology advances, the user are becoming more demanding about the quality of the services they use. Given the diversity of devices and networks available today, one of the big challenges of these multimedia systems is to be able to adapt the transmission to the receivers' characteristics and conditions. A suitable solution to provide this adaptation is the integration of scalable video coding with layered transmission. As the final product in these multimedia systems are the multimedia data that is presented to the user, the quality of these data will define the performace of the system and the users' satisfaction. This paper presents a study of subjective quality of scalable video sequences, coded using the scalable extension of the H.264 standard (SVC). A group of experiments was performed to measure, primarily, the efeects that the transmission instability (variations in the number of video layers received) has in the video quality and the relationship between the three scalability methods (spatial, temporal and quality) in terms of subjective quality. The decisions taken to model the tests were based on layered transmission systems that use protocols for adaptability and congestion control. To run the subjective assessments we used the ACR-HRR methodology and recommendations given by ITU-R Rec. BT.500 and ITU-T Rec. P.910. The results show that the instability modelled does not causes significant alterations on the overall video subjective quality if compared to a stable video and that the temporal scalability usually produces videos with worse quality than the spatial and quality methods, the latter being the one with the better quality. The main contributions presented in this work are the results obtained in the subjective assessments. Moreover, are also considered as contributions the methodology used throughout the entire work (including the test plan definition, the use of tools as JSVM, the test material selection and the steps taken during the assessment), some applications that were developed, the definition of future works and the specification of some problems that can also be solved with subjective quality evaluations.

In this dissertation, a fully scalable video coding system is proposed. This system achieves full temporal, resolution, and fidelity scalability by combining mesh-based motion-compensated temporal filtering, multihypothesis motion compensation, and an embedded 3D wavelet-coefficient coder. The first major contribution of this work is the introduction of the redundant-wavelet multihypothesis paradigm into motion-compensated temporal filtering, which is achieved by deploying temporal filtering in the domain of a spatially redundant wavelet transform. A regular triangle mesh is used to track motion between frames, and an affine transform between mesh triangles implements motion compensation within a lifting-based temporal transform. Experimental results reveal that the incorporation of redundant-wavelet multihypothesis into mesh-based motion-compensated temporal filtering significantly improves the rate-distortion performance of the scalable coder. The second major contribution is the introduction of a sliding-window implementation of motion-compensated temporal filtering such that video sequences of arbitrarily length may be temporally filtered using a finite-length frame buffer without suffering from severe degradation at buffer boundaries. Finally, as a third major contribution, a novel 3D coder is designed for the coding of the 3D volume of coefficients resulting from the redundant-wavelet based temporal filtering. This coder employs an explicit estimate of the probability of coefficient significance to drive a nonadaptive arithmetic coder, resulting in a simple software implementation. Additionally, the coder offers the possibility of a high degree of vectorization particularly well suited to the data-parallel capabilities of modern general-purpose processors or customized hardware. Results show that the proposed coder yields nearly the same rate-distortion performance as a more complicated coefficient coder considered to be state of the art.

This research investigates scalable video communications and its applications to video streaming, conferencing and 3DTV. Scalable video coding (SVC) is a layer-based encoding scheme that provides spatial, temporal and quality scalability. Heterogeneity of the Internet and clients' operating environment necessitate the adaptation of media content to ensure a satisfactory multimedia experience. SVC's layer structure allows the extraction of partial bitstreams at reduced spatial, quality and temporal resolutions that adjust the media bitrate at a fine granularity to changes in network state. The main focus of this research work is in developing such extraction algorithms in the context of SVC. Based on a combination of metadata computations and prediction mechanisms, these algorithms evaluate the quality contribution of each layer in the SVC bitstream and make extraction decisions that are aimed at maximizing video quality while operating within the available bandwidth resources. These techniques are applied in two-way interaction and one-way streaming of 2D and 3D content. Depending on the delay tolerance of these applications, rate-distortion optimized extraction algorithms are proposed. For conferencing applications, the extraction decisions are made over single frames and frame pairs due to tight end-to-end delay constraints. The proposed extraction algorithms for 3D content streaming maximize the overall perceived 3D quality based on human stereoscopic perception. When compared to current extraction methods, the new algorithms offer better video quality at a given bitrate while performing lesser number of metadata computations in the post-encoding phase. The solutions proposed for each application achieve the recurring goal of maintaining the best possible level of end-user quality of multimedia experience in spite of network impairments.

Les applications en temps réel, telles que les systèmes de conférence multi-utilisateurs, ont des exigences de qualité de service élevées pour garantir une qualité d'expérience décente. De nos jours, la plupart de ces conférences sont effectuées sur des appareils sans fil. Ainsi, les appareils mobiles hétérogènes et la dynamique du réseau doivent être correctement gérés pour fournir une bonne qualité d’expérience. Dans cette thèse, nous proposons deux algorithmes pour construire et gérer des sessions de conférence basées sur un réseau défini par logiciel qui utilise à la fois la distribution multicast et l’adaptation de flux. Le premier algorithme configure la conférence téléphonique en créant des arborescences de multidiffusion pour chaque participant. Ensuite, il place de manière optimale les emplacements et les règles d’adaptation des flux sur le réseau afin de minimiser la consommation de bande passante. Nous avons créé deux versions de cet algorithme: le premier, basé sur les arborescences les plus courtes, minimise la latence, tandis que le second, basé sur les arborescences, minimise la consommation de bande passante. Le deuxième algorithme adapte les arborescences de multidiffusion en fonction des modifications du réseau qui se produisent pendant un appel. Il ne recalcule pas les arbres, mais ne déplace que les emplacements et les règles d’adaptation des flux. Cela nécessite un calcul très faible au niveau du contrôleur, ce qui rend notre proposition rapide et hautement réactive. Des résultats de simulation étendus confirment l'efficacité de notre solution en termes de temps de traitement et d'économies de bande passante par rapport aux systèmes de conférence existants basés sur une unité de contrôle multipoint et une multidiffusion de couche d'application. / Real-time applications, such as Multi-party conferencing systems, have strong Quality of Service requirements for ensuring a decent Quality of Experience. Nowadays, most of these conferences are performed on wireless devices. Thus, heterogeneous mobile devices and network dynamics must be properly managed to provide a good quality of experience. In this thesis, we propose two algorithms for building and maintaining conference sessions based on Software-Defined Network that uses both multicast distribution and streams adaptation. The first algorithm set up the conference call by building multicast trees for each participant. Then, it optimally places the stream adaptation locations and rules inside the network in order to minimize the bandwidth consumption. We have created two versions of this algorithm: the first one, based on the shortest path trees is minimizing the latency, while the second one, based on spanning trees is minimizing the bandwidth consumption. The second algorithm adapts the multicast trees according to the network changes occurring during a call. It does not recompute the trees, but only relocates the locations and rules of stream adaptation. It requires very low computation at the controller, thus making our proposal fast and highly reactive. Extensive simulation results confirm the efficiency of our solution in terms of processing time and bandwidth savings compared to existing conferencing systems based on a Multipoint Control Unit and Application Layer Multicast.

Multimedia services and applications became the driving force in the development and widespread deployment of wireless broadband access technologies and high speed local area networks. Mobile phone service providers are offering wide range of multimedia applications over high speed wireless data networks. People can watch live TV, stream on-demand video clips and place videotelephony calls using multimedia capable mobile devices. Mobile devices will soon support capturing and displaying high definition video. Similar evolution is also occurring in the local area domain. The video receiver or storage devices were conventionally connected to display devices using cables. By using wireless local area networking (WLAN) technologies, convenient and cable-free connectivity can be achieved. Media over wireless home networks prevents the cable mess and provides mobility to portable TVs. However, there still exit challenges for improving the quality-of-service (QoS) of multimedia applications. Conventional service architectures, network structures and protocols lack to provide a robust distribution medium since most of them are not designed considering the high data rate and real-time transmission requirements of digital video. In this thesis the challenges of wireless video streaming are addressed in two main categories. Streaming protocol level issues constitute the first category. We will refer to the collection of network protocols that enable transmitting digital compressed video from a source to a receiver as the streaming protocol. The objective of streaming protocol solutions is the high quality video transfer between two networked devices. Novel application-layer video bit-rate adaptation methods are designed for handling short- and long-term bandwidth variations of the wireless local area network (WLAN) links. Both transrating and scalable video coding techniques are used to generate video bit-rate flexibility. Another contribution of this thesis study is an error control method that dynamically adjusts the forward error correction (FEC) rate based on channel bit-error rate (BER) estimation and video coding structure. The second category is the streaming service level issues, which generally surface in large scale systems. Service system solutions target to achieve system scalability and provide low cost / high quality service to consumers. Peer-to-peer assisted video streaming technologies are developed to reduce the load of video servers. Novel video file segment caching strategies are proposed for more efficient peer-to-peer collaboration.

Abstract This dissertation studies the impact of heterogeneous wireless networks on the design and implementation of mobile video streaming services. The aim is to enable Quality of Service (QoS) sensitive video streaming services to take full advantage of the access diversity of heterogeneous networks in order to optimize their operation in terms of quality and efficiency of network resource usage. This nevertheless requires support beyond the layered communication architecture of today’s Internet. The thesis proposes an architecture for end-to-end cross-layer signaling and control for video streaming systems. The architecture supports extensive context informa- tion transfer in heterogeneous networks; thus, enabling the efficient management of video stream adaptation and user terminal mobility in a diverse and dynamic network environment. This thesis also studies and proposes cross-layer enhancements for adaptive video streaming and mobility management functions enabled by the cross- layer architecture. These include cross-layer video adaptation, congestion-triggered handovers, and concurrent utilization of multiple access networks in the video stream transport. For the video adaptation and multipath transmission, the flexible adaptation and transmission capabilities of the novel scalable video coding technology are used. Regarding the mobility management, the proposed solutions essentially enhance the handover decision-making of the Mobile IP protocol to better support QoS-sensitive video streaming. Finally, the thesis takes a holistic view on the application adaptation and mobility management, and proposes a solution for coordinated control of these two operations in order to achieve end-to-end optimization. The resulting mobile video streaming system architecture and the cross-layer control algorithms are evaluated using network simulations and real prototypes. Based on the results, the proposed mechanisms can be seen to be viable solutions for improving video streaming performance in heterogeneous wireless networks. They require changes in the communication end-points and the access network but support gradual deployment. This allows service providers and operators to select only a subset of the proposed mechanisms for implementation. The results also support the need for cross-layer signaling and control in facilitating efficient management and utilization of heterogeneous wireless networks. / Tiivistelmä Väitöskirja tutkii langattomien ja heterogeenisen verkkoympäristöjen vaikutusta erityisesti mobiilikäyttöön suunnattuihin suoratoistovideopalveluihin (streaming). Työn tavoitteena on löytää keino optimoida verkkoyhteyden palvelunlaadulle (QoS) herkän suoratoistovideon toiminta sekä videopalvelun laadun että verkon tiedonsiirtokapasiteetin käytön osalta. Tämä tapahtuu mahdollistamalla heterogeenisten verkkojen tehokas käyttö suoratoistovideopalvelujen tapauksessa. Tavoitellut parannukset vaativat kuitenkin muutoksia nykyiseen kerroksittaiseen Internet-arkkitehtuuriin. Väitöskirjassa esitetään arkkitehtuuri protokollakerrosten välisen tiedon (cross-layer) välitykseen ja hyödyntämiseen suoratoistovideopalvelujen tiedonsiirron kontrolloinnissa. Arkkitehtuuria voidaan käyttää laaja-alaiseen kontekstitiedon välitykseen tietoverkoissa, mikä mahdollistaa tehokkaan videopalvelun adaptoinnin ja päätelaitteen liikkuvuudenhallinnan heterogeenisissa verkoissa, joissa palvelunlaatu vaihtelee. Väitöskirja myös ehdottaa erilaisia ratkaisuja videopalvelun adaptoinnin ja tiedonsiirron parantamiseksi arkkitehtuuria hyödyntämällä. Näihin lukeutuvat usealle protokollakerrokselle toteutettu videon adaptointi, verkkoyhteyden ruuhkautumiseen reagoiva yhteydensiirto sekä usean verkkoyhteyden samanaikainen käyttö videopalvelun tiedonsiirrossa. Videon adaptoinnissa ja siirrossa hyödynnetään uutta skaalautuvaa videonkoodausteknologiaa, joka mahdollistaa vaaditun, joustavan videobittivirran muokkauksen. Liikkuvuudenhallinnan osalta työssä keskitytään pääosin kehittämään Mobile IP -protokollan päätöksentekoa suoratoistovideopalvelujen tapauksessa. Lopuksi väitöskirjassa esitetään kokonaisvaltainen ja koordinoitu ratkaisu videopalvelun adaptoinnin sekä päätelaitteen liikkuvuuden hallintaan päästä päähän -optimoinnin saavuttamiseksi. Tuloksena esitetyt järjestelmäarkkitehtuuri ja protokollakerrosten välistä tietoa käyttävät hallinta-algoritmit evaluoitiin simulaatioiden ja oikeiden prototyyppien avulla. Tulokset osoittavat, että ehdotettuja menetelmiä voidaan käyttää parantamaan suoratoistovideopalvelujen suorituskykyä heterogeenisissa verkoissa. Ratkaisut vaativat muutoksia verkko- ja palveluarkkitehtuureihin, mutta niiden asteittainen tai osittainen käyttöönotto on mahdollista. Tulokset osoittavat myös protokollakerrosten välisen tiedon tarpeellisuuden langattomien ja heterogeenisten verkkojen tehokkaassa käytössä.