Reducing startup delay of video streaming is important for attracting more users. In LTE networks, even though available bandwidth has increased, behavior of TCP, which has a slow start phase and estimates available capacity based on packet loss event, increases the startup delay of video streaming. To solve this issue, we design a proxy-based TCP rate control (PTRC) scheme for achieving low startup delay of mobile video streaming by using the explicit radio related information from a base station (BS). We introduce a target queue length (Qtarget) as feedback information to a proxy, which represents a desired value at the BS. Here, the Qtarget is dynamically calculated by referring to average data rate of a radio link and backhaul delay. Then the proxy is informed of this Qtarget by an in-band signaling message from the BS, and controls its sending rate accordingly. Hence, the proposed PTRC scheme can boost up its transmission rates in the initial phase, and keep instant queue length at the BS close to the Qtarget. We verify that the proposed PTRC scheme achieves about 71.2% reduction of startup delay for mobile video streaming in LTE environment, compared to conventional schemes.
['Joo-hyung Lee', 'Hyung-Ho Lee', 'Jinsung Lee', 'Hanna Lim', 'Jung-Shin Park', 'Ji-cheol Lee']
A performance study of proxy-based TCP rate control design for mobile video streaming services