A Hybrid Rate Adaptation Framework for MPEG-4 FGS Video Streaming Over IP

There are increasing demands for real-time streaming video applications over the Internet. However, the current generation Internet was not originally designed for real-time streaming applications and only provides best-effort services, so there are many challenges in the deployment of video streaming applications over the Internet. This thesis investigates a hybrid end-to-end rate adaptation framework that provides application-level enhancements to achieve Quality of Service (QoS) for MPEG-4 FGS-Encoded video bandwidth on the path and the terminal process capabilities based on the packet-loss ratio and then determine their subscribing rate of video streams. The sender adjusts the transmission rate based on the packet-loss ratio and then determine their subscribing rate of video streams. The sender adjusts the transmission rate based on the proportion of load status feedbacks from the receivers. The sender and the receivers act together to minimize the possibility of network congestion by adjusting the transmission rate to match the network conditions. This framework achieves inter-receiver fairness in a heterogeneous multicast environment and improves QoS stability for MPEG-4 FGS video streaming over the Internet.