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Proceedings ArticleDOI

Confused, timid, and unstable: picking a video streaming rate is hard

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TLDR
This work measures three popular video streaming services -- Hulu, Netflix, and Vudu -- and finds that accurate client-side bandwidth estimation above the HTTP layer is hard, and rate selection based on inaccurate estimates can trigger a feedback loop, leading to undesirably variable and low-quality video.
Abstract
Today's commercial video streaming services use dynamic rate selection to provide a high-quality user experience. Most services host content on standard HTTP servers in CDNs, so rate selection must occur at the client. We measure three popular video streaming services -- Hulu, Netflix, and Vudu -- and find that accurate client-side bandwidth estimation above the HTTP layer is hard. As a result, rate selection based on inaccurate estimates can trigger a feedback loop, leading to undesirably variable and low-quality video. We call this phenomenon the "downward spiral effect", and we measure it on all three services, present insights into its root causes, and validate initial solutions to prevent it.

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Proceedings ArticleDOI

Understanding the intermittent traffic pattern of HTTP video streaming over wireless networks

TL;DR: It is argued that through a deep understanding and careful analysis of the HTTPs video traffic, valuable information about the competing streams can be obtained and could be utilized in developing a network based solution that can significantly improve the video QoE and assist the video players to perform much better.
Proceedings ArticleDOI

MASH: A rate adaptation algorithm for multiview video streaming over HTTP

TL;DR: MASH can produce much higher and smoother quality than the algorithm used by YouTube, while it is more efficient in using the network bandwidth, and large-scale experiments show that MASH maintains fairness across competing sessions, and it does not overload the streaming server.
Journal ArticleDOI

Server side, play buffer based quality control for adaptive media streaming

TL;DR: This paper demonstrates that the drawbacks of existing protocols can be overcome with a server side, buffer based quality control scheme and achieves this without client assistance by designing a play buffer estimation algorithm.
Journal ArticleDOI

SABA: segment and buffer aware rate adaptation algorithm for streaming over HTTP

TL;DR: This paper proposes a throughput estimation method that accurately estimates the throughput based on previous throughput samples, and is robust to short term and small fluctuations, and sensitive to large fluctuations in throughput.
References
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TCP Congestion Control

TL;DR: This document defines TCP's four intertwined congestion control algorithms: slow start, congestion avoidance, fast retransmit, and fast recovery, as well as discussing various acknowledgment generation methods.
Proceedings ArticleDOI

Youtube traffic characterization: a view from the edge

TL;DR: This paper presents a traffic characterization study of the popular video sharing service, YouTube, and finds that as with the traditional Web, caching could improve the end user experience, reduce network bandwidth consumption, and reduce the load on YouTube's core server infrastructure.
Proceedings ArticleDOI

An experimental evaluation of rate-adaptation algorithms in adaptive streaming over HTTP

TL;DR: This paper focuses on the rate-adaptation mechanisms of adaptive streaming and experimentally evaluates two major commercial players (Smooth Streaming, Netflix) and one open source player (OSMF).
Proceedings ArticleDOI

Understanding the impact of video quality on user engagement

TL;DR: This paper uses a unique dataset that spans different content types, including short video on demand, long VoD, and live content from popular video con- tent providers, to measure quality metrics such as the join time, buffering ratio, average bitrate, rendering quality, and rate of buffering events.
Proceedings ArticleDOI

Unreeling netflix: Understanding and improving multi-CDN movie delivery

TL;DR: A measurement study of Netflix is performed to uncover its architecture and service strategy, and finds that Netflix employs a blend of data centers and Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) for content distribution.
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We measure three popular video streaming services -- Hulu, Netflix, and Vudu -- and find that accurate client-side bandwidth estimation above the HTTP layer is hard.