Streaming and congestion control using scalable video coding based on H.264/AVC

Abstract

This paper presents a streaming system using scalable video coding based on H.264/AVC. The system provides a congestion control algorithm supported by channel bandwidth estimation of the client. It uses retransmission only for packets of the base layer to disburden the congested network. The bandwidth estimation allows for adjusting the transmission rate quickly to the current available bandwidth of the network. Compared to binomial congestion control, the proposed system allows for shorter start-up times and data rate adaptation. The paper describes the components of this streaming system and the results of experiments showing that the proposed approach works effectively for streaming video.