Low-latency multimedia streaming using Open Networking Environments

Abstract

Traditional services like video broadcast and telephony are more and more implemented on general-purpose networks. This is usually the Internet, which has different properties compared to special-purpose infrastructures as the public switched telephone network. This paper highlights three major causes why this migration is currently providing user experiences that are worse than with traditional networks. In particular, challenges caused by changed latency characteristics are addressed. For every cause, approaches are highlighted to tackle them, including novel transport protocols as well as paradigms to optimize transmissions at the network core. A presentation of new network infrastructures following the concept of Software-Defined Networking (SDN) completes the picture and allows to implement flow-oriented forwarding. Finally, the Open Networking Testbed operated by the Telecommunications Chair at Saarland University is presented, including its means to evaluate novel protocols, paradigms, and concepts in a controlled and realistic environment. Having international partners in place, it is possible to test new approaches on a global scale.