Not Taken for Granted: Configuring Scalable Live Video Streaming Under Throughput Fluctuations in Mobile Edge Networks

We consider end-to-end live video streaming in mobile edge networks with fluctuating but predictable throughput. We employ scalable video coding (SVC) to adapt the bitrate of each frame to the throughput evolution in a timely manner. When streaming SVC-encoded live video, the video source should dynamically derive and configure a set of coding parameters for each upcoming chunk, which consists of a number of consecutive frames. The coding parameters quantify the throughput evolution of an upcoming chunk by providing a few bitrate options for the frames within this chunk to encode with. Unlike the majority of existing works that simply treat the coding parameters as given (i.e., taking them for granted), in this paper, we derive the coding parameters from a comprehensive mathematical modeling and optimization perspective. Our approach consists of an optimization problem that captures the fundamental trade-off in determining the coding parameters and a customized search algorithm based on the analysis of the optimization problem's solution structure. Numerical results produced by the NS-3 network simulator show that our approach outperforms the state-of-the-art benchmarks.