Prospects for live higher resolution video streaming to mobile devices: achievable quality across wireless links

From a review of the literature and a range of experiments, this paper demonstrates that live video streaming to mobile devices with pixel resolutions from Standard Definition up to 4K Ultra High Definition (UHD) is now becoming feasible by means of high-throughput IEEE 802.11ad at 60 GHz or 802.11ac at 5 GHz, and 4K UHD streaming is even possible with 802.11n operating at 5 GHz. The paper, by a customized implementation, also shows that real-time compression, assisted by graphical processing units at 4K UHD, is also becoming feasible. The paper further considers the impact of packet loss on H.264/AVC and HEVC codec compressed video streams in terms of structural similarity index video quality. It additionally gives an indication of wireless network latencies and currently feasible frame rates. Findings suggest that, for medium-range transmission, the video quality may be acceptable at low packet loss rates. For hardware-accelerated 4K UHD encoding, standard frame rates may be possible but appropriate higher frame rates are only just being reached in hardware implementations. The target bitrate was found to be important in determining the display quality, which depends on the coding complexity of the video content. Higher compressed bitrates are recommended, as video quality may improve disproportionately as a result.