Video Streaming Over MANETs: Reality or Fiction?

We focus in this paper on the performance evaluation of video streaming over mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) using resource constrained handheld real world devices, namely Nokia 770/N800 Internet Tablets. The main results from our experiments reveal that in principle video streaming in a multi-hop wireless ad-hoc network using such devices is possible. However, playing and forwarding the video stream at the same time could become infeasible, as receiving and playing a high-quality video stream at 1Mbps consumes almost 100% of the CPU time. In addition, an intermediate forwarding node is a potential bottleneck, being able to handle only three simultaneous high-quality (1Mbps) video streams before the CPU becomes overloaded. Our results emphasize the importance of resource monitoring and optimization for any future video streaming solutions for resource constrained devices in such networking environments.