published_or_final_version / Electrical and Electronic Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

As the Internet develops and technology evolves, multimedia traffic dominates the Internet. Traditional client-server based video streaming solutions are expensive and suffering from the scalability issue. Inspired by the immense success and efficiency of BitTorrent in distributing file contents to large groups of users, the peer-to-peer (P2P) paradigm has been adopted to provide streaming services including both P2P video-on-demand (VoD) and P2P live streaming. Among the design challenges, one open yet fundamental question is, how to identify the most suitable neighbor for a peer to make a piece request. We refer this problem as the request peer selection problem. Properly allocating the piece request to potential providers is essential to the system and would help to balance the load at each peer. A well designed request peer selection algorithm increases the requestor’s probability to download the desired piece timely which leads to enhanced video quality and improved playback continuity. This thesis aims to enhance the overall system performance by proposing optimized request peer selection algorithms for both P2P VoD and P2P live streaming systems. In P2P VoD, participating peers start playback from the very beginning of a stored video. The playback-points of peers, as well as the amount of video contents/pieces the peers cached, depend on when they join the video session, or their viewing ages. The content buffered by younger peers is a subset of older peers, thus collaborative piece exchange among peers is undermined due to the unbalanced supply and demand. To address this issue, a playback-point based request peer selection algorithm: closest playback-point first (CPF) is proposed. Specifically, when a peer requests a particular video piece, among the set of potential providers, a request is sent to the peer that has the smallest playback-point difference with itself. With CPF, peers with similar content availability are loosely grouped into clusters to maximize the utilization of individual peer’s upload capacity. Extensive packet level simulations show that with CPF, the video playback quality is enhanced and the VoD server load is significantly reduced. Unlike P2P VoD, P2P live streaming systems have to meet real-time playback constraints, which makes it even more challenging. To better regulate the network traffic and to balance the load among peers, a service response time (SRT) based request peer selection algorithm is proposed. In particular, a peer in the network estimates the service response time (SRT) between itself and each neighboring peer. SRT is measured from when a data piece request is sent until the requested piece arrives. When a peer makes a piece request, the neighbor with smaller SRT and fewer data pieces would be favored. The rationale is: smaller SRT implies excess serving capacity and fewer data pieces suggests fewer potential piece requests received. Extensive packet level simulations show that the traffic load in the network is better balanced, the streaming server load is reduced, and the overall quality of service, measured by playback continuity, startup delay etc., is improved. / published_or_final_version / Electrical and Electronic Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy

The purpose of this report was to study how the Swedish radio channel Sveriges Radio (SR) website changed over time. What are the differences between various media websites? How many people listen to normal and web-radio and what are the differences between the various services offered on the SR website? Reports from the BBC, Statistics Sweden, Mediavision and the Swedish National Post and Telecom Agency were compared. Several theoreticians have been studied, including Donald A Norman, Jonas Löwgren, Karen Holtzbratt, Jacob Nielsen and Geoffrey Moore. The method used by the author comprised a systematic mapping of statistics from webTrends, KiaIndex, SiteCensus, TNS Gallup/K2analys and reports from RUAB. The data studied have been collected from telephone interviews, postal surveys, internet panels, and from log files. The statistics have then been compared and in some cases tables have been cross-correlated. The results from the various studies showed that SR is following the rising trend displayed by a few of the media websites reviewed. It is of particular interest to note that web-radio listening between the final period 2004 and 2005 almost doubled. The next stage will be to offer the listener/user a more central position. By listening to users, and above all non-users, the function and content can be adapted to the larger group of pragmatists and conservative listeners that are looking for sustainable and convenient solutions. Key words [Streaming, on demand, radio, analogue, web-radio] / Avsikten med den här rapporten var att ta reda på hur Sveriges Radios (SR) sajt förändras över tid. Vilka skillnader finns det mellan olika mediesajter. Hur många lyssnar på vanlig- kontra webbradio samt vad finns det för skillnader mellan olika tjänster på SR:s sajt. Jämförelser har gjorts mellan BBC, SCB, Mediavision samt Post & Telestyrelsens rapporter. Flera teoretiker har studerats som Donald A Norman, Jonas Löwgren, Karen Holtzbratt, Jacob Nielsen och Geoffrey Moore. Författarens metod bestod av att systematiskt kartlägga statistik från webTrends, KiaIndex, SiteCensus, TNS Gallup/K2analys samt RUAB:s rapporter. De data som undersökts kommer från telefonintervjuer, postenkäter, Internetpaneler samt loggfiler. Statistiken har jämförts med varandra samt i vissa fall har tabellerna korskörts. Resultaten från de olika undersökningarna visar att SR följer den uppåtgående trend som några av de undersökta mediesajterna har. Men det mer intressanta är att webbradiolyssningen mellan sista perioden 2004 och 2005 nästan fördubblats. Nästa steg blir att se till att lyssnarna/användarna står mer i centrum. Genom att lyssna på användare, men framför allt icke-användare så skulle funktion och innehåll kunna anpassas till den större gruppen pragmatiker och konservativa som vill ha hållbara och bekväma lösningar.

Collection understanding shifts the traditional focus of retrieval in large collections from locating specific artifacts to gaining a comprehensive view of the collection. Visualization tools are critical to the process of efficient collection understanding. By presenting simple visual interfaces and intuitive methods of interacting with a collection, users come to understand the essence of the collection by focusing on the artifacts. This thesis discusses a practical approach for enhancing collection understanding in image collections.

Šiame baigiamajame darbe atlikta analizė, kurioje gilinamasi į podcast`ingo privalumus ir pranašumus ir galimybes, lyginant su video transliavimu, dar kitaip vadinamu video „streaming“. Taip pat gilinamasi į tai, kokius pranašumus televizija turėtų prieš kitas, kurios nenaudoja podcast technologijos laidų anonsavimui žiūrovams. Ieškoma alternatyvių projektų, kuriuose bandoma padaryti kažką panašaus. Aprašant projektinius sprendimus, supažindinama su:  būsimu prototipu  televizijos reklamos sprendimas panaudojant podcast technologiją  terminalo tipo atpažinimas  atsiunčiamų transliacijos įrašų panaudojimas televizijos laidų reklamai pritaikymas pagal terminalo tipą  alternatyviu atsiunčiamų transliacijos įrašų panaudojimu televizijos laidų reklamai mobiliajame telefone Atlikus praktinius tyrimus, įsitikinome, kad padarytas prototipas veikia. Tiesa, turi šiokių tokiu trūkumų, kurie dar galėtu būti tobulinami ateityje. / This master `s work analystes advantage of podcasting versus video broadcasting, in other words – video streaming, video podcast expectation of using it. Also I will look through what advantage has Tv stations against these who don`t use podcast technology. Also, there will be looking for some similar podcast projects too. Solutions will be presented:  prototipe  advertisements of tv`s shows  identification of terminal  video announcement`s broadcasting using any type of terminal  video announcement`s broadcasting using mobile phones  alternative video announcement`s broadcasting on mobile phones. In conclusion we can see prototipe is working. In thruth it is not everything working perfect and it should be developed near in future.

The research reported in this thesis investigates the performance of the transport layer Stream Control Transfer Protocol (SCTP) for streaming video over CDMA2000 cellphone and data wireless networks. The main measure of performance was quality of the received video at a given buffer size, as cellphones have memory of limited capacity. The hypothesis was that SCTP would be able to improve the quality of streamed video over UDP under the same memory requirements. Our study involved two series of simulation experiments and measurements in a testbed on the Telecom NZ CDMA2000 network, to test the performance of video streaming under SCTP and under UDP. It was found that SCTP did not improve the quality in streamed video with up to 5 second buffers. While other scenarios that have been tested by other people with high packet loss or congestion have shown that SCTP can improve the quality, the CDMA2000 network does not suffer from the impairments that SCTP could neutralise, and because of that, in this scenario, the quality of video streaming under SCTP and UDP are similar. The complexity that SCTP adds does not correspond to an increase in quality.

The intellectual property concept of ‘communication to the public’ in Article 3(1) of the InfoSoc Directive is a current issue within the EU, as the means of communication increase all the time due to the fast development of the information society. Accordingly, the CJEU has more than occasionally been instructed to rule upon this provision, as the Member States of the EU are unconfident as to how it should be interpreted. The poor guidance provided for in the preamble of the InfoSoc Directive in terms of how to construe the provision does probably contribute to this confusion. Article 3(1) of the InfoSoc Directive has been subject to disputes as concerns different means of communication, that is to say broadcasting, live performances, streaming and hyperlinking. Broadcasting and streaming are generally considered as communications within the meaning of the provision whereas live performances and hyperlinking have been deemed as falling outside the scope. More in detail, the most important criteria of a ‘communication to the public’ – laid down by the CJEU – suggest that the concept should be interpreted broadly, covering all transmissions and retransmissions where equipment facilitates for communications of signs, sounds or images, regardless of the means used and the nature of the place for the communication. A public refers to an indeterminate but fairly high number of people – considering the potential number rather than the exact number – not present at the place where the communication originates. The gap between the wording of Article 3(1) of the InfoSoc Directive and the developments carried out by the CJEU is considered troublesome since it decreases the legal certainty of the provision. A future recasting of these matters should thus contemplate the possibility to integrate the criteria laid down by the CJEU into the law.

With the rapid development in the areas of mobile manufacturing and multimedia communications, there is an increasing demand for Networked Virtual Environment (NVE) applications, such as Augmented Reality (AR), virtual walk-throughs, and massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs), on hand-held devices. Unfortunately, downloading and rendering a complex 3D scene is very computationally intensive and is not compatible with current mobile hardware specifications nor with available wireless bandwidth. Existing NVE applications deploy client/server based 3D streaming over thin mobile devices, which suffer from single point of failure, latency, and scalability issues. To address these issues, image-based rendering (IBR) and cloud-based 3D streaming have been introduced. The former introduces visual artifacts that reduce, and usually cancel, the realistic behaviors of the Virtual Environment (VE) application, while the latter is considered very expensive to implement. Peer-to-peer (P2P) 3D streaming is promising and affordable, but it has to tackle issues in object discovery and selection as well as content provider strategies. Distributing VE content over a mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) makes the system difficult to update due to the dynamic nature of the mobile clients. In order to tackle these issues, we came up with a novel protocol that combines the pros of both central and distributed approaches. Our proposed hybrid protocol, called OCTET, enables 3D scene streaming over thin devices in a way that can cope with current mobile hardware capabilities and mitigate the challenges of client/server and P2P 3D streaming. In fact, OCTET provides strategies that select, prioritize, and deliver only those objects that contribute to the user’s visible scene. OCTET is implemented using the "ns-2" simulation environment, and extensive experiments have clearly demonstrated significant achievements in mobile resource utilization, throughput, and system scalability.

Ability grouping has long been a subject of heated debate in education systems worldwide. Despite being such a controversial topic, ability grouping is still widely used in classrooms across the world. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact that ability grouping has not only on students, but also on those who implement this tool in the classroom, namely teachers. To provide a balanced view, the paper considers the advantages and disadvantages of ability grouping. The paper also compares ability grouping in both the U.S. and Singapore to demonstrate that no system is perfect. Each comes with its own strengths and weaknesses. However, aspects of each system can be borrowed and incorporated to strengthen existing education systems. Because each country has unique political, economic, and social forces, it is important for policy makers to customize foreign practices according to the political and cultural landscape of their country.

The emerging vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANETs) offer a variety of applications and new potential markets related to safety, convenience and entertainment, however, they suffer from a number of challenges not shared so deeply by other types of existing networks, particularly, in terms of mobility of nodes, and end-to-end quality of service (QoS) provision. Although several existing works in the literature have attempted to provide efficient protocols at different layers targeted mostly for safety applications, there remain many barriers to be overcome in order to constrain the widespread use of such networks for non-safety applications, specifically, for video streaming: 1) impact of high speed mobility of nodes on end-to-end QoS provision; 2) cross-layer protocol design while keeping low computational complexity; 3) considering customer-oriented QoS metrics in the design of protocols; and 4) maintaining seamless single-hop and multi-hop connection between the destination vehicle and the road side unit (RSU) while network is moving. This thesis addresses each of the above limitations in design of cross-layer protocols for video streaming application. 1) An adaptive MAC retransmission limit selection scheme is proposed to improve the performance of IEEE 802.11p standard MAC protocol for video streaming applications over VANETs. A multi-objective optimization framework, which jointly minimizes the probability of playback freezes and start-up delay of the streamed video at the destination vehicle by tuning the MAC retransmission limit with respect to channel statistics as well as packet transmission rate, is applied at road side unit (RSU). Two-hop transmission is applied in zones in which the destination vehicle is not within the transmission range of any RSU. In the multi-hop scenario, we discuss the computation of access probability used in the MAC adaptation scheme and propose a cross-layer path selection scheme; 2) We take advantage of similarity between multi-hop urban VANETs in dense traffic conditions and mesh connected networks. First, we investigate an application-centric routing scheme for video streaming over mesh connected overlays. Next, we introduce the challenges of urban VANETs compared to mesh networks and extend the proposed scheme in mesh network into a protocol for urban VANETs. A classification-based method is proposed to select an optimal path for video streaming over multi-hop mesh networks. The novelty is to translate the path selection over multi-hop networks to a standard classification problem. The classification is based on minimizing average video packet distortion at the receiving nodes. The classifiers are trained offline using a vast collection of video sequences and wireless channel conditions in order to yield optimal performance during real time path selection. Our method substantially reduces the complexity of conventional exhaustive optimization methods and results in high quality (low distortion). Next, we propose an application-centric routing scheme for real-time video transmission over urban multi-hop vehicular ad-hoc network (VANET) scenarios. Queuing based mobility model, spatial traffic distribution and prob- ability of connectivity for sparse and dense VANET scenarios are taken into consideration in designing the routing protocol. Numerical results demonstrate the gain achieved by the proposed routing scheme versus geographic greedy forwarding in terms of video frame distortion and streaming start-up delay in several urban communication scenarios for various vehicle entrance rate and traffic densities; and 3) finally, the proposed quality-driven routing scheme for delivering video streams is combined with a novel IP management scheme. The routing scheme aims to optimize the visual quality of the transmitted video frames by minimizing the distortion, the start-up delay, and the frequency of the streaming freezes. As the destination vehicle is in motion, it is unrealistic to assume that the vehicle will remain connected to the same access router (AR) for the whole trip. Mobile IP management schemes can benefit from the proposed multi-hop routing protocol in order to adapt proxy mobile IPv6 (PMIPv6) for multi-hop VANET for video streaming applications. The proposed cross-layer protocols can significantly improve the video streaming quality in terms of the number of streaming freezes and start-up delay over VANETs while achieving low computational complexity by using pattern classification methods for optimization.