Risk-aware Scheduling for Multi-user Video Streaming over Wireless Multi-hop Networks

To cope with the time-varying network conditions, various error-protection and channel adaptation strategies have been proposed at different layers of the protocol stack. However, these cross-layer strategies can be efficiently optimized only if they act on accurate information about the network conditions and hence, are able to timely adapt to network changes. We analyze the impact of such information feedback on the video quality performances of the collaborative multimedia users sharing the same multi-hop wireless infrastructure. Based on the information feedback, we can estimate the risk that packets from different priority and deadline classes will not arrive at their destination before their decoding deadline. Subsequently, cross-layer optimization strategies such as packet scheduling, retransmission (due to transmission error) limit are adapted to jointly consider the estimated risk as well as the impact in terms of distortion of not receiving different priority packets. Our results quantify the risk estimation and its benefit in different network conditions and for various video applications with different delay constraints.