Adaptive Video Streaming in MU-MIMO Networks

We consider extensions and improvements on our previous work [1] on dynamic adaptive video streaming in a multi-cell multiuser “small cell” wireless network. In [1] we treated the case of single-antenna base stations and, starting from a network utility maximization (NUM) formulation, we devised a “push” scheduling policy, where users place requests to sequential video chunks to possibly different base stations with adaptive video quality, and base stations schedule their downlink transmissions in order to stabilize their transmission queues. In this paper we consider a “pull” strategy, where every user maintains a request queue, such that users keep track of the video chunks that are effectively delivered. The pull scheme allows to download the chunks in the playback order without skipping or missing them. In addition, motivated by the recent/forthcoming progress in small cell networks (e.g., in wave-2 of the recent IEEE 802.11ac standard), we extend our dynamic streaming approach to the case of base stations capable of multiuser MIMO downlink, i.e., serving multiple users on the same time-frequency slot by spatial multiplexing. By exploiting the “channel hardening” effect of high dimensional MIMO channels, we devise a low complexity user selection scheme to solve the underlying maxweighted rate scheduling, which can be easily implemented and runs independently at each base station. Through simulations, we show MIMO gains in terms of video streaming QoE metrics like the pre-buffering and re-buffering times.