Codec Adaptation for Wireless Multimedia Streaming

Abstract

Due to the time-varying nature of wireless channels and the Internet backbone traffic, it is a challenging task to maintain the quality of wireless multimedia streaming throughout the transmission. An effective solution is to adapt the codec setting based on the wireless channel condition or the Internet backbone state. In this chapter, we present three cross-layer codec adaptation algorithms that adjust the codec setting in real-time based on media access control frame error rate, received signal strength indication, and path bandwidth respectively. Results show that the algorithms are effective in achieving good video quality for wireless multimedia streaming over wireless links.