Streaming video has strong availability requirements, while for livestreamed video low latency becomes an additional significant factor. For large-scale video streaming the streaming service must be able to scale in and out in order to conform to the interchanging demands of users. Video streaming demonstrates heavily fluctuating load, where number of viewers may increase exponentially within a few minutes. In combination with the high availability guarantees suggests that the problem is non-trivial.This thesis covers the issues of providing a cost-effective distributed live video streaming application that guarantees a seamless user experience. For instance, there are multiple channels, in the order of hundred, where each has an ever changing popularity and furthermore, users are able to watch content which was streamed for some number of hours ago. Thus, the system must both provide cached streams as well as the live-stream.In this thesis, an elasticity-providing solution for live video streaming is presented. The solution is a combination of rule-based reactive algorithm for channel distribution and a predictive method for VM instance provisioning. The results show that the algorithm, when simulating 15 channels with 80000 viewers and 50 instances, keeps underallocation of channels at less than 1% while achieving significant reduction of about 125% for channel occurrences and thereby bandwidth consumption compared to the previous channel distribution solution. As the video streaming service scales in terms of number of channels and VM instances, the reduction factor increases. / Videoströmmingstjänster har starka krav på tillgänglighet, medan för live-strömmad video blir låg latens också signifikant. För storskalig videoströmmning måste tjänsten kunna skala in och ut för att överensstämma med användarnas växlande krav. Videoströmmning visar starkt varierande belastning, där antalet tittare kan öka exponentiellt inom några minuter. I kombination med de höga tillgänglighetsgarantierna antyder att problemet inte är trivialt.Denna avhandling täcker problemen med att tillhandahålla en kostnadseffektiv distribuerad live-videoströmmningstjänst som garanterar en sömlös användarupplevelse. Till exempel finns det flera kanaler, i storleksordningen hundra, där var och en har en ständigt förändrande popularitet. Därtill tillkommer dessutom att användare har möjligheten titta på innehåll som strömmats för några timmar sedan. Således måste systemet både tillhandahålla cachade strömmar såväl som direktsändning.I denna avhandling presenteras en elasticitetslösning för live video streaming. Lösningen är en kombination av en regelbaserad reaktiv algorithm för kanaldistribution och en prediktiv metod för VM-instans allokering. Resultaten visar att algoritmen, vid en simulering med 15 kanaler, 80000 tittare och 50 instanser, klarar att hålla underallokering av kanaler lägre än 1% samtidigt som totala antalet kanalinstanser reduceras med ungefär 125% jämfört med den tidigare kanaldistributionslösningen. Allteftersom videostreamingstjänsten skalar i antal kanaler och VM-instanser ökar reduktionsfaktorn ytterligare.

It has been said that the XXI century is the century of people; social media, web2.0 applications and other technology breakthroughs have made the world every single day a smaller place. iChina forum takes advantage of all available existing technology to provide seasoned China experts with a platform that help them share their knowledge with the world. Our purpose is to enhance the mutual understanding between east and west towards and harmonic future. This business plan explains how through the use of open source development tools, a network of partnerships and social media marketing a low cost internet startup is possible.

<p>The purpose of this thesis is to examine the possibilities of creating a MPEG-4-compatible set-top box for IP-networks based on open standards. </p><p>Existing alternatives for transporting MPEG-4 over IP are evaluated and ISMA is found to be an important actor within the area. ISMA is a non-profit corporation formed to provide a forum for the creation of specifications that define an interoperable implementation for streaming rich media over IP-networks. </p><p>Two different designs based on ISMA's recommendation are constructed and evaluated. The designs have different levels of complexity and the more complex design is found to be better due to its extended functionality. </p><p>During the design process a number of problems related to this kind of set-top box are discovered. It is believed, however, that many of these problems will be solved within the near future.</p>

Fourth Generation (4G) cellular technology Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) offers high data rate capabilities to mobile users; and, operators are trying to deliver a true mobile broadband experience over LTE networks. Mobile TV and Video on Demand (VoD) are expected to be the main revenue generators in the near future [36] and efficient video streaming over wireless is the key to enabling this. 3GPP recommends the use of H.264 baseline profiles for all video based services in Third Generation (3G) Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) networks. However, LTE networks need to support mobile devices with different display resolution requirements like small resolution mobile phones and high resolution laptops. Scalable Video Coding (SVC) is required to achieve this goal. Feasibility study of SVC for LTE is one of the main agenda of 3GPP Release10. SVC enhances H.264 with a set of new profiles and encoding tools that may be used to produce scalable bit streams. Efficient adaptation methods for SVC video transmission over LTE networks are proposed in this thesis. Advantages of SVC over H.264 are analyzed using real time use cases of mobile video streaming. Further, we study the cross layer adaptation and scheduling schemes for delivering SVC video streams most efficiently to the users in LTE networks in unicast and multicast transmissions. We propose SVC based video streaming scheme for unicast and multicast transmissions in the downlink direction, with dynamic adaptations and a scheduling scheme based on channel quality information from users. Simulation results indicate improved video quality for more number of users in the coverage area and efficient spectrum usage with the proposed methods.

Efficient transmission schemes are presented for streaming scalable video over a link with limited capacity. The objective is to select a transmission sequence of data units and their transmission schedule such that the overall video quality is maximized. For video with a single spatial layer, optimal transmission schemes are obtained for two general classes of hierarchical prediction structures, which include the popular dyadic structure. Based on a new characterization of the interdependence among frames in terms of trees, structural properties of an optimal transmission schedule are derived. These properties lead to the development of a jointly optimal frame selection and scheduling algorithm, which has computational complexity that is quadratic in the number of frames. Then, using the concept of virtual deadlines, an efficient sub-optimal scheme for the transmission of video with multiple spatial layers is proposed. Simulation results show that the proposed schemes substantially outperform two existing alternatives.

Efficient transmission schemes are presented for streaming scalable video over a link with limited capacity. The objective is to select a transmission sequence of data units and their transmission schedule such that the overall video quality is maximized. For video with a single spatial layer, optimal transmission schemes are obtained for two general classes of hierarchical prediction structures, which include the popular dyadic structure. Based on a new characterization of the interdependence among frames in terms of trees, structural properties of an optimal transmission schedule are derived. These properties lead to the development of a jointly optimal frame selection and scheduling algorithm, which has computational complexity that is quadratic in the number of frames. Then, using the concept of virtual deadlines, an efficient sub-optimal scheme for the transmission of video with multiple spatial layers is proposed. Simulation results show that the proposed schemes substantially outperform two existing alternatives.

Fourth Generation (4G) cellular technology Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) offers high data rate capabilities to mobile users; and, operators are trying to deliver a true mobile broadband experience over LTE networks. Mobile TV and Video on Demand (VoD) are expected to be the main revenue generators in the near future [36] and efficient video streaming over wireless is the key to enabling this. 3GPP recommends the use of H.264 baseline profiles for all video based services in Third Generation (3G) Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) networks. However, LTE networks need to support mobile devices with different display resolution requirements like small resolution mobile phones and high resolution laptops. Scalable Video Coding (SVC) is required to achieve this goal. Feasibility study of SVC for LTE is one of the main agenda of 3GPP Release10. SVC enhances H.264 with a set of new profiles and encoding tools that may be used to produce scalable bit streams. Efficient adaptation methods for SVC video transmission over LTE networks are proposed in this thesis. Advantages of SVC over H.264 are analyzed using real time use cases of mobile video streaming. Further, we study the cross layer adaptation and scheduling schemes for delivering SVC video streams most efficiently to the users in LTE networks in unicast and multicast transmissions. We propose SVC based video streaming scheme for unicast and multicast transmissions in the downlink direction, with dynamic adaptations and a scheduling scheme based on channel quality information from users. Simulation results indicate improved video quality for more number of users in the coverage area and efficient spectrum usage with the proposed methods.

The imminent inception of third-generation (3G) mobile communication networks offers an unprecedented opportunity for the development of video streaming applications through wireless Internet access. Different design challenges exist in implementing video streaming connections spanning both wired and wireless domains. A split-domain TCP-friendly streaming video transmission protocol is presented based on adaptive rate encoding in the MPEG-4 video format. Network simulations are conducted to demonstrate the benefits and viability of such a video streaming scheme over existing options. Further feature enhancements and refinements are necessary for the proposed protocol to achieve its full potential.

In this thesis, a novel Scalable Multiple Description Coding (SMDC) framework is proposed. To address the bandwidth fluctuation, packet loss and heterogeneity problems in the wireless networks and further enhance the error resilience tools in Moving Pictures Experts Group 4 (MPEG-4), the joint design of layered coding (LC) and multiple description coding (MDC) is explored. It leverages a proposed distributed multimedia delivery mobile network (D-MDMN) to provide path diversity to combat streaming video outage due to handoff in Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). The corresponding intra-RAN (Radio Access Network) handoff and inter-RAN handoff procedures in D-MDMN are studied in details, which employ the principle of video stream re-establishing to replace the principle of data forwarding in UMTS. Furthermore, a new IP (Internet Protocol) Differentiated Services (DiffServ) video marking algorithm is proposed to support the unequal error protection (UEP) of LC components of SMDC. Performance evaluation is carried through simulation using OPNET Modeler 9. 0. Simulation results show that the proposed handoff procedures in D-MDMN have better performance in terms of handoff latency, end-to-end delay and handoff scalability than that in UMTS. Performance evaluation of our proposed IP DiffServ video marking algorithm is also undertaken, which shows that it is more suitable for video streaming in IP mobile networks compared with the previously proposed DiffServ video marking algorithm (DVMA).

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the possibilities of creating a MPEG-4-compatible set-top box for IP-networks based on open standards. Existing alternatives for transporting MPEG-4 over IP are evaluated and ISMA is found to be an important actor within the area. ISMA is a non-profit corporation formed to provide a forum for the creation of specifications that define an interoperable implementation for streaming rich media over IP-networks. Two different designs based on ISMA's recommendation are constructed and evaluated. The designs have different levels of complexity and the more complex design is found to be better due to its extended functionality. During the design process a number of problems related to this kind of set-top box are discovered. It is believed, however, that many of these problems will be solved within the near future.