Efficient bandwidth resource allocation for low-delay multiuser video streaming

This paper studies efficient bandwidth resource allocation for streaming multiple MPEG-4 fine granularity scalability (FGS) video programs to multiple users. We begin with a simple single-user scenario and propose a rate-control algorithm that has low delay and achieves an excellent tradeoff between the average visual distortion and the quality fluctuation. The proposed algorithm employs two weight factors for adjusting the tradeoff, and the optimal choice of these factors is derived. We then extend to the multiuser case and propose a dynamic resource allocation algorithm with low delay and low computational complexity. By exploring the variations in the scene complexity of video programs as well as dynamically and jointly distributing the available system resources among users, our proposed algorithm provides low fluctuation of quality for each user, and can support consistent or differentiated quality among all users to meet applications' needs. Experimental results show that compared to traditional look-ahead sliding-window approaches, our algorithm can achieve comparable visual quality and channel utilization at a much lower cost of delay, computation, and storage.