Video and Multimedia Transmissions over Cellular Networks: Analysis, Modelling and Optimization in Live 3G Mobile Communications

This excellent reference provides detailed analysis and optimization aspects of live 3G mobile communication networks Video and Multimedia Transmissions over Cellular Networks describes the state-of-the-art in the transmission of multimedia over cellular networks, evaluates the performance of the running system based on the measurements and monitoring of live networks, and finally presents concepts and methods for improving of the quality in such systems. Key Features: Addresses the transmission of different media over cellular networks, with a focus on evolving UMTS transmission systems Provides in-depth coverage of UMTS network architecture, and an overview of 3GPP video services Describes the characteristics of the link layer errors in the UMTS Terrestrial radio Access Network (UTRAN), obtained by extensive measurements in live UMTS networks Covers video encoding and decoding, introducing H.264/AVC video codec, as well as addressing various novel concepts for increased error resilience Discusses the real-time capable algorithms that are suitable for implementation in power and size limited terminals Presents the methods for monitoring quality, as well as analyzing and modelling traffic evolution in the cellular mobile network This book provides a valuable reference for researchers and students working in the field of multimedia transmission over wireless networks.  Industry experts and professionals working within the field will also find this book of interest.

Table of Contents:
List of Contributors xiii About the Contributors xv Foreword xix Preface xxi Acknowledgements xxv List of Abbreviations xxvii I Cellular Mobile Systems 1 1 Introduction to Radio and Core Networks of UMTS 5 Philipp Svoboda and Wolfgang Karner 1.1 UMTS Network Architecture 7 1.2 UTRAN Architecture 8 1.2.1 UTRAN Protocol Architecture 9 1.2.2 Physical Layer Data Processing in the UTRAN Radio Interface 13 1.3 UMTSPS-core Network Architecture 16 1.4 A Data Session in a 3GNetwork 18 1.4.1 The UMTS (PS-core) Protocol Stack 19 1.4.2 The Protocols 20 1.4.3 Bearer Speed in UMTS 23 1.5 Differences between 2.5G and 3G Core Network Entities 23 1.5.1 GPRS Channels 24 1.5.2 GPRS Core Network Architecture 25 1.5.3 The GPRS Protocol Stack 25 1.5.4 Bearer Speed in GPRS and EDGE 27 1.6 HSDPA: an Evolutionary Step 27 1.6.1 Architecture of HSDPA 28 1.6.2 Difference between UMTS and HSDPA 29 1.6.3 Transport and Control Channels 31 References 32 II Analysis and Modelling of the Wireless Link 35 2 Measurement-based Analysis of UMTS Link Characteristics 39 Wolfgang Karner 2.1 Measurement Setup 40 2.1.1 General Setup 40 2.1.2 Mobility Scenarios 42 2.2 Link Error Analysis 46 2.2.1 Link Error Probability 46 2.2.2 Number of erroneous TBs in TTIs 48 2.2.3 TTI-burstlength,TTI-gaplength 48 2.2.4 TB Error Bursts, TB Error Clusters 50 2.2.5 The Influence of TPC on Link Error Characteristics 52 2.2.6 Statistical Dependency between Successive Gaps/Bursts 54 2.2.7 Block Error Ratio (BLER) 55 2.3 Dynamic Bearer Type Switching 56 2.3.1 Measurement-based Analysis of Dynamic Bearer Type Switching 57 References 60 3 Modelling of Link Layer Characteristics 61 Wolfgang Karner 3.1 Modelling Erroneous Channels – A Literature Survey 61 3.2 Link Error Models for the UMTSDCH 66 3.2.1 Link Error Modelling – ‘Dynamic’ Case 67 3.2.2 Link Error Modelling – ‘Static’ Case 69 3.3 Impact of Channel Modelling on the Quality of Services for Streamed Video 75 3.3.1 Compared Models 76 3.3.2 Experimental Setup 76 3.3.3 Simulation Results for H.264 Encoded Video over Error Prone Links 78 3.4 A Dynamic Bearer Type Switching Model 83 3.4.1 Four-state Markov Model 83 3.4.2 Enhanced Four-state Model 84 References 86 4 Analysis of Link Error Predictability in the UTRAN 89 Wolfgang Karner 4.1 Prediction of Low Error Probability Intervals 90 4.1.1 Detection of Start of  Intervals 90 4.1.2 Interval Length Li 91 4.2 Estimation of Expected Failure Rate 92 References 95 III Video Coding and Error Handling 97 5 Principles of Video Coding 101 Olivia Nemethova 5.1 Video Compression 101 5.1.1 Video Sampling 101 5.1.2 Compression Mechanisms 103 5.1.3 Structure of Video Streams 107 5.1.4 Profiles and Levels 108 5.1.5 Reference Software 108 5.2 H.264/AVC Video Streaming in Error-prone Environment 109 5.2.1 Error Propagation 109 5.2.2 Standardized Error Resilience Techniques 110 5.2.3 Alternative Error Resilience Techniques 111 5.3 Error Concealment 112 5.3.1 Spatial Error Concealment 113 5.3.2 Temporal Error Concealment Methods 115 5.4 Performance Indicators 118 References 120 6 Error Detection Mechanisms for Encoded Video Streams 125 Luca Superiori, Claudio Weidmann and Olivia Nemethova 6.1 Syntax Analysis 126 6.1.1 Structure of VCL NALUs 126 6.1.2 Rules of Syntax Analysis 128 6.1.3 Error-handling Mechanism 131 6.1.4 Simulation Setup 133 6.1.5 Subjective Quality Comparison 134 6.1.6 Detection Performance 135 6.2 Pixel-domain Impairment Detection 137 6.2.1 Impairments in the Inter Frames 137 6.2.2 Impairments in the Intra Frames 138 6.2.3 Performance Results 139 6.3 Fragile Watermarking 140 6.4 VLC Resynchronization 146 6.4.1 Signalling of Synchronization Points 146 6.4.2 Codes for Length Indicators 148 6.5 From Error Detection to Soft Decoding 151 6.5.1 Sequential CAVLC Decoder 152 6.5.2 Additional Synchronization Points 153 6.5.3 Postprocessing 154 6.5.4 Performance 154 References 157 IV Error Resilient Video Transmission over UMTS 159 7 3GPP Video Services – Video Codecs, Content Delivery Protocols and Optimization Potentials 163 Thomas Stockhammer and Jiangtao Wen 7.1 3GPP Video Services 163 7.1.1 Introduction 163 7.1.2 System Overview 164 7.1.3 Video Codecs in 3GPP 166 7.1.4 Bearer and Transport QoS 169 7.1.5 QoS using Video Error Resilience 171 7.2 Selected QoS Tools–Principles and Experimental Results 171 7.2.1 3GDedicatedChannelLinkLayer 171 7.2.2 Experimental Results for Conversational Video 173 7.2.3 Experimental Results for Moderate-delay Applications 175 7.2.4 System Design Guidelines 177 7.3 Selected Service Examples 178 7.3.1 Multimedia Telephony Services 178 7.3.2 Multimedia Download Delivery 180 7.3.3 Multimedia Streaming Services over MBMS 181 7.4 Conclusions 184 References 184 8 Cross-layer Error Resilience Mechanisms 187 Olivia Nemethova, Wolfgang Karner and Claudio Weidmann 8.1 Link Layer Aware Error Detection 188 8.1.1 Error Detection at RLC Layer 188 8.1.2 RLCPDU Based VLC Resynchronization 189 8.1.3 Error Detection and VLC Resynchronization Efficiency 191 8.2 Link Error Prediction Based Redundancy Control 192 8.2.1 Redundancy Control 192 8.3 Semantics-aware Scheduling 196 8.3.1 Scheduling Mechanism 196 8.3.2 Performance Evaluation 199 8.4 Distortion-aware Scheduling 202 8.4.1 Scheduling Mechanism.202 8.4.2 Distortion Estimation 203 8.4.3 Performance Evaluation 207 References 209 V Monitoring and QoS Measurement 211 9 Traffic and Performance Monitoring in a Real UMTS Network 215 Fabio Ricciato 9.1 Introduction to Traffic Monitoring 215 9.2 Network Monitoring via Traffic Monitoring: the Present and the Vision 216 9.3 AMonitoringFrameworkfor3GNetworks 219 9.4 Examples of Network-centric Applications 220 9.4.1 Optimization in the Core Network Design 220 9.4.2 Parameter Optimization 221 9.4.3 What-if Analysis 222 9.4.4 Detecting Anomalies 223 9.5 Examples of User-centric Applications 224 9.5.1 Traffic Classification 225 9.5.2 QoS and QoE monitoring 226 9.6 Summary 226 References 227 10 Traffic Analysis for UMTS Network Validation and Troubleshooting 229 Fabio Ricciato and Peter Romirer-Maierhofer 10.1 Case study: Bottleneck Detection 229 10.1.1 Motivations and Problem Statement 229 10.1.2 Input Traces 233 10.1.3 Diagnosis based on Aggregate Traffic Rate Moments 234 10.1.4 Diagnosis based on TCP Performance Indicators 239 10.2 Case Study: Analysis of One-way Delays 243 10.2.1 Motivations 243 10.2.2 Measurement Methodology 244 10.2.3 Detecting Micro Congestion Caused by High-rate Scanners 245 10.2.4 Revealing Network Equipment Problems 249 10.2.5 Exploiting One-way Delays for Online Anomaly Detection 250 References 254 11 End-to-End Video Quality Measurements 257 Michal Ries 11.1 Test Methodology for Subjective Video Testing 260 11.1.1 Video Quality Evaluation 261 11.1.2 Subjective Testing 263 11.1.3 Source Materials 263 11.2 Results of Subjective Quality Tests 265 11.2.1 Subjective Quality Tests on SIF Resolution and H.264/AVC Codec 265 11.3 Video Quality Estimation 267 11.3.1 Temporal Segmentation 267 11.3.2 Video Content Classification 268 11.3.3 Content Sensitive Features 268 11.3.4 Hypothesis Testing and Content Classification 274 11.3.5 Video Quality Estimation for SIF-H.264 Resolution 275 11.3.6 Content Based Video Quality Estimation 276 11.3.7 Ensemble Based Quality Estimation 280 References 283 VI Packet Switched Traffic – Evolution and Modelling 287 12 Traffic Description 291 Philipp Svoboda 12.1 Introduction 291 12.1.1 Analysed Traces 291 12.1.2 Daily Usage Profile for UMTS and GPRS 292 12.2 Volume and User Population 293 12.2.1 Volumes and User Population in GPRS and UMTS 293 12.2.2 Fraction of Volume per Service 296 12.2.3 Service Mix Diurnal Profile 298 12.2.4 Grouping Subscribers per Service Access 300 12.2.5 Filtering in the Port Analysis 301 12.3 Analysis of the PDP-context Activity 301 12.3.1 Per-user Activity 302 12.3.2 Distribution of PDP-context Duration 302 12.3.3 The Volume of a PDP-context 307 12.3.4 Total Volume and Number of PDP-contexts per Group 308 12.4 Detecting and Filtering of Malicious Traffic 309 References 311 13 Traffic Flows 313 Philipp Svoboda 13.1 Introduction to Flow Analysis 313 13.1.1 Heavy Tailed 314 13.1.2 The Flow 315 13.1.3 Protocol Shares 317 13.2 Fitting of Distributions to Empirical Data 317 13.2.1 Pre-evaluation of the Dataset 317 13.2.2 Parameter Estimation 318 13.2.3 Goodness of Fit 321 13.3 Flows Statistics 321 13.3.1 Evolution of the TCP/UDP and Application Flow Lengths from 2005 to 2007 321 13.3.2 Example Validation of the Datasets 322 13.3.3 Scaling Analysis of the Heavy Tail Parameter 323 13.3.4 Fitting Flow Size and Duration 324 13.3.5 Mice and Elephants in Traffic Flows 328 References 330 14 Adapting Traffic Models for High-delay Networks 333 Philipp Svoboda 14.1 Motivation 333 14.2 Modelling HTTP Browsing Sessions for the Mobile Internet Access 335 14.2.1 HTTP Traffic Model 337 14.3 Modelling FTP Sessions in a Mobile Network 341 14.3.1 Modelling FTP Sessions 342 14.3.2 Fitting the Parameters 343 14.4 Email Traffic Model: An Extension to High-delay Networks 344 14.4.1 Email Protocols of the Internet 344 14.4.2 APOP3EmailModel for High RTT Networks 346 14.4.3 Simulation Setup 350 14.4.4 Simulation Results 352 References 352 15 Traffic Models for Specific Services 355 Philipp Svoboda 15.1 Traffic Models for Online Gaming 356 15.1.1 Traffic Model for a Fast Action Game: Unreal Tournament 358 15.1.2 Traffic Model for a Real Time Strategy Game: StarCraft 361 15.1.3 Traffic Model for a Massive Multiplayer Online Game: World of Warcraft 362 15.2 A Traffic Model for Push-to-Talk (Nokia) 370 15.2.1 AMR: Facts from the Data Sheets 371 15.2.2 Parameters for Artificial Conversational Speech 372 15.2.3 PTT Model 372 References 374 Index 377