Research in network resource utilisation introduced several techniques for more efficient power and bandwidth consumption. The majority of these techniques, however, were based on Quality of Service (QoS) and network parameters. Therefore, in this study a different approach is taken to investigate the possibility of a more efficient resource utilisation if resources are distributed based on users' Quality of Experience (QoE), in the context of 3D video transmission over WiMAX access networks. In particular, this study suggests a QoE-driven technique to identify the operational regions (bounds) for Modulation and Coding Schemes (MCS). A mobile 3D video transmission is simulated, through which the correlation between receiver's Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) and perceived video quality is identified. The main conclusions drawn from the study demonstrate that a considerable saving in signal power and bandwidth can be achieved in comparison to QoS-based techniques.
TopIntroduction
In the recent decade, 3D video has attracted a larger portion of the consumer market, due to the added dimension of entertainment. However, since it contains additional information to be transmitted over the network, an extra burden is added to the already congested network’s capacity. Therefore, the issue of resource utilisation becomes more than ever a pressing issue for networks in general, and wireless access networks in particular.
Accordingly, research in network resource utilisation introduced several techniques for more efficient power and bandwidth consumption. The majority of these techniques, however, were based on Quality of Service (QoS) and network parameters. Therefore, in this study a different approach is taken to investigate the possibility of a more efficient resource utilisation if resources are distributed based on users’ Quality of Experience (QoE), in the context of 3D video transmission over WiMAX access networks. In particular, this study suggests a QoE-driven technique to identify the operational regions (bounds) for Modulation and Coding Schemes (MCS). A mobile 3D video transmission is simulated, through which the correlation between receiver’s Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) and perceived video quality is identified. The main conclusions drawn from the study demonstrate that a considerable saving in signal power and bandwidth can be achieved in comparison to QoS-based techniques.
Recently, 3D video has gained an accelerated momentum in the consumer entertainment sector. This is attributed to the added dimension of sensation it offers to the viewer, represented by the ability to sense the depth added to conventional 2D video. Hence, one of the developed techniques for 3D video representation is a 2D colour image accompanied by a grayscale depth map, known as colour-plus-depth representation. Consequently, the stereoscopic 3D view is generated (rendered) at the display terminal following a technique known as Depth Image Based Rendering (DIBR) (Fehn, 2004). This added dimension of depth introduces extra demand on network resources and exhibits further user aspects such as binocular disparity and visual discomfort contributing to the overall 3D perception. In addition, the transmission of 3D video to mobile devices is confronted by the limited bandwidth, bit-errors and finite device power. Therefore, more efficient resource utilisation techniques are needed; techniques that reduce the power requirement and avail extra bandwidth.
Efficient resource utilisation has been an area of interest to several research studies. Hence, different approaches were taken with the aim to save on scarce resources such as bandwidth and power. Many of these approaches often considered Quality of Service (QoS) and network parameters as the basis for their findings. Unlike QoS-based techniques, in this study, efficiency in resource utilisation is suggested through exploiting Adaptive Modulation and Coding (AMC) at the physical layer together with users’ QoE (Martini, 2013). Hence, from a user-centric approach, this chapter presents a study proposing a more efficient technique for AMC in terms of power and bandwidth utilisation, on the basis of consumer’s perception of 3D video.
Section 5 of this chapter presents the methodology followed to propose the QoE-driven resource utilisation. This includes the simulation model and the proposed approach for band AMC transition thresholds. The results are presented in section 6. Then the contribution of this chapter is summarised in the last section.