A Simulation Model for Streaming Applications over a Power-manageable Wireless Link

In this work we introduce a hardware-validated simulation model for the exploration of real-time multimedia systems, where system components are modeled as interacting generalized semi-Markov processes (GSMPs). We apply the simulation model to explore the design space of a mobile client accessing streaming data through a wireless network. The model has been characterized and validated against power and performance measurements performed on an instrumented HP’s iPAQ with wireless LAN running a MPEG4 video application. We analyze the impact of tuning parameters for the real-time multimedia system (buffer sizes, channel bandwidth, power management policy) on the trade off between power consumption and QoS.