Bitrate Stream Selection for Video Downloading
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Solution Overview
Problem
In 5G wireless systems, the varying available network bandwidth due to mobile client devices and changing base station coverage poses challenges for adaptive bitrate selection, leading to suboptimal media rendering experiences, especially when traditional adaptive bitrate strategies fail to account for future bandwidth changes.
Innovation Solution
A media delivery system that predicts future available network bandwidth to select appropriate bitrate streams, allowing for proactive buffering strategy adjustments to ensure minimal media distortion across successive timeslots, using a processor to determine bitrate options and select combinations that balance quality and buffer management.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If traditional adaptive bitrate strategies are used, then device complexity is reduced, but media rendering quality deteriorates due to failure to account for future bandwidth changes
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by predicting future available network bandwidth before making bitrate selection decisions. The processor determines predicted future available network bandwidth for a plurality of future successive timeslots and uses this prediction to proactively select bitrate streams, rather than reacting to current bandwidth conditions alone. This allows the system to prepare appropriate bitrate selections in advance, improving media rendering quality by anticipating bandwidth changes.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements dynamic bitrate selection by continuously adjusting bitrate stream choices based on predicted future bandwidth conditions. The processor determines a plurality of bitrate options including different selections from multiple bitrate streams for each future timeslot, allowing the bitrate selection to adapt dynamically to changing network conditions while maintaining optimal media rendering quality.
2Manufacturing precision
If proactive buffering strategy adjustments are made, then media distortion is minimized, but computational requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies partial action by determining bitrate options for a limited plurality of future successive timeslots rather than attempting to optimize indefinitely into the future. This approach minimizes media distortion for the critical near-term playback period while limiting computational energy requirements by not performing exhaustive predictions and selections for extended future periods.
3Reliability
If bitrate streams are selected based on predicted future bandwidth, then buffer management is optimized, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the bitrate selection process into distinct components: predicting future available network bandwidth for multiple timeslots, determining multiple bitrate options with different stream combinations, and selecting the optimal bitrate option based on predicted conditions. This segmentation allows each component to be handled independently, improving buffer management reliability while managing system complexity through modular processing.
Data Source
AI summary
In one embodiment, an apparatus includes a processor operative to determine a plurality of bitrate options for downloading video content to a client device and rendering by the client device over future successive timeslots, the video content being encoded as a plurality of bitrate streams, each one bitrate stream being encoded at a different bitrate and being associated with a media distortion value, each one bitrate option including a different selection from the bitrate streams for rendering by the client device over the timeslots so that the bitrate options include different combinations of the bitrate streams for rendering by the client device over the timeslots, and select one bitrate option, from the bitrate options yielding a selected bitrate option, to provide a lowest media distortion result across the timeslots, or a lowest media distortion result across the timeslots subject to at least one other constraint.