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Multimedia across IP Networks

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Video Transmission over IP Networks

• Problem of sending multimedia data over IP has
2 main components:
1. Video data compression
2. Design of communication protocol
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Structure of video streaming system

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Video Transmission over IP

• Two approaches:
1.Approach centered around coding problems
2.Approach centered around design of network
protocols
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Approach centered around Coding

problem
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Approach centered around Coding

problem…….
• Design of low-bit rate coder
• Standard Internet transport protocols are used
• Channel is not too congested
• Importance to the design of good compression
algorithms
• Network is just considered as a black box
• Limitation: does not take care of the time
varying nature of the network channel
• Channel is severely under-used, by using a low
bit rate coder
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Approach centered around design of

network protocols
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Approach centered around design of

network protocols….
• Using standard video coding algorithms that
generate a fixed syntax for the compressed bit
stream
• Importance to the design of good
communication protocols
• Coder is of MPEG-x ,H.26x etc
• Limitations: lack of robustness of coders used
• When errors occur, quality of the decoded
signals suffer severly
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Traffic Specification for MPEG video

transmission on the Internet
• ISWG defines the Tspec as:
1.Peak rate measured in bytes of IP packets per
second
2.Token bucket depth
3.Bucket rate of token buckets, measured in bytes
of IP packets per second
4.Minimum policed unit(m), measured in bytes
specifying the minimum size of network packets
5.Maximum IP packet size measured in bytes
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Bandwidth allocation mechanism

• Transmission of real time streams across
networks(distance learning , digital library)
• Requires guaranteed Bandwidth and loss rate so
as to achieve good QoS.
• Bandwidth allocation mechanisms are
used(BAM) due to variable BW requirement.
• Reduce the video VBR
• Dynamic allocation of BW
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Bandwidth allocation
mechanisms(BAM)
• Receiver request for a video(N frames) from
sender
• For 24 FPS motion-video , a(i) denotes the
amount of data sent at time i=1,2..N
band(i) = max{ a(j) , j>= i)} , i= 1,2..N
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Bandwidth allocation
mechanisms(BAM)….
• Also can reduce BW when it is not in use
• At time j, just before sending the quantity a(j), a
request to deallocate the BW is sent
• if band(j) <band(j-1)
• New allocated BW = band(j)
• BW use, U = ∑ a(i) / ∑ band(i) , i = 1,….N
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Fine Grained Scalable Video

Coding for Multimedia across IP
• FGS encoding is designed to meet the required
BW and maintain a simple scalability structure
• FGS consists of two layers
• Base layer coded at bit rate Rb
• Enhancement layer coded with fine granular
scheme to a maximum rate of Re
• Encoder needs to know only the range
• Rmin = Rb and Rmax = Re
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• Streaming server has the total flexibility in

sending any desired portion of any enhancement
layer
• On the Rx side , it adds a small amount of
complexity and memory requirements
• Case of unicast
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Example of FGS scalability

structure
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FGS Based Multicast

• For Multicast applications, it is more flexible
• Encoder compresses the content using desired
BW as that of unicast
• At the decoder side , Rx can subscribe to the
base layer channel and to any number of FGS
enhancement layer channels
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FGS Based Multicast

• FGS framework consists of two encoders(base &
enhancement)
• Base layer can be compressed using motion
compensation video encoding method
• Eg: DCT based MPEG 4 video standard
• FGS enhancement layer encoder can be based on
any fine granular coding method
• 2 methods: wavelet, DCT
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FGS Based Multicast scenario

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Multimedia across DSL

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Introduction
• Digital subscriber line (DSL) is a family of
technologies that provide Internet access by
transmitting digital data over the wires of a
local telephone network.
• DSL service is delivered simultaneously
with wired telephone service on the
same telephone line
•  Asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL), is
the most commonly installed DSL technology
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• With DSL service, you are able to receive data at rates up

to 6.1 megabits per second enabling continuous
transmission of motion video & audio
• To interconnect multiple DSL users to a high-
speed backbone network, the telephone company uses a
Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer ( DSLAM).
• Typically, the DSLAM connects to an asynchronous
transfer mode ( ATM ) network that can aggregate data
transmission at gigabit data rates. 
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Architecture of DSL
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Advantages of DSL
• You can leave your Internet connection open and
still use the phone line for voice calls.
• The speed is much higher than a regular modem
• DSL doesn't necessarily require new wiring; it
can use the phone line you already have.
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VODSL (Voice over DSL)

Architecture
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• The technique used to transport voice and data

in an integrated way across DSL is referred to as
Voice over DSL(VODSL)
• “Headend” : location where content is
aggregated for TV channels, internet access
• Content from all these services are converted to
MPEG format
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• The output channels are delivered to an ATM

network
• The role of the transport network is to deliver
the content from the headend locations to
appropriate DSLAMs
• DSL Access Multiplexer(DSLAM) is an ATM
multiplexer or a switch
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Multimedia across ADSL

• Primary motivation of ADSL is the delivery of
multimedia services
• Layer coded structure
• Multimedia data is constructed into separate
data streams, each representing a layer
• Layers have different QoS requirements
• Data rate and error performance
• Expressed as Bit error rate (BER) & Symbol
error rate (SER)
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Transmission schemes for

multimedia data across ADSL
• Serial transmission(TDM)
• Parallel transmission(FDM)
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Serial Transmission (TDM)

• ADSL transmission is divided into time slots
• Layers are time division multiplexed.
• In each time slot only data from a single layer is
transmitted
• Design task is finding a time slot for layer
assignment to achieve high efficiency
transmission and acceptable Qos
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Serial transmission across ADSL

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Serial transmission….
• Time slots 1 &2 are assigned to transmitting
layer 1
• Slot 3 to layer 2
• Slot 4 to layer 3 and so on…
• The sub channel power and bit rate distributions
are different in slots 1& 2 compared to slots 3 &
slot 4
• It is seen that BER is constant within the same
time slot and different across the time slots.
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Parallel transmission(FDM)
• Transmitting multimedia layers simultaneously
• The layers are transmitted in the same time slot
each occupying a set of sub channels
• For every time slot, power and bit rate allocation
remains the same
• It achieves constant error performance across
the time slots .
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Parallel transmission
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Error performance across time

slots