Efficient HD video streaming over the internet

Abstract

This paper presents methods to improve the efficiency and performance of high-definition (HD) video streaming over the Internet. Traditionally, the approach from the a video server has been to send the contents of the entire video stream as quickly as possible, which we shall refer to in this paper as “rapid” downloading. Rapid downloading does not field optimal bandwidth usage for sending variable bit rate (VBR) HD videos, and may result in a high number of packet losses over the Internet when peak rates are demanded by the video stream. We propose a solution that focuses on “progressive” downloading where the stream is sent in progressive blocks. With VBR videos, particularly 1080p HD videos encoded using H.264, this approach provides better buffer and bandwidth utilization. We will also show that with video smoothing and compound TCP, further performance gains can be achieved.