IEEE Communications Society extends its appreciation of Hermann Hellwagner as a distingguished member of the IEEE INFOCOM 2020.
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IEEE INFOCOM 2020 – Online Conference July 6-9, 2020
Multimedia Communication
Authors: Venkata Phani Kumar M (Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt), Christian Timmerer (Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, Bitmovin) and Hermann Hellwagner (Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt)
Abstract: Video delivery over the Internet has become more and more established in recent years due to the widespread use of Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH). The current DASH specification defines a hierarchical data model for Media Presentation Descriptions (MPDs) in terms of periods, adaptation sets, representations and segments. Although multi-period MPDs are widely used in live streaming scenarios, they are not fully utilized in Video-on-Demand (VoD) HTTP adaptive streaming (HAS) scenarios. In this paper, we introduce MiPSO, a framework for Multi–Period per-Scene Optimization, to examine multiple periods in VoD HAS scenarios. MiPSO provides different encoded representations of a video at either (i) maximum possible quality or (ii) minimum possible bitrate, beneficial to both service providers and subscribers. In each period, the proposed framework adjusts the video representations (resolution-bitrate pairs) by taking into account the complexities of the video content, with the aim of achieving streams at either higher qualities or lower bitrates. The experimental evaluation with a test video data set shows that the MiPSO reduces the average bitrate of streams with the same visual quality by approximately 10% or increases the visual quality of streams by at least 1 dB in terms of Peak Signal-to-Noise (PSNR) at the same bitrate compared to conventional approaches to video content delivery.
Keywords: Adaptive Streaming, Video-on-Demand, Per-Scene Encoding, Media Presentation Description
IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo. July 06 – 10, London, United Kingdom
Authors: Babak Taraghi (Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt), Anatoliy Zabrovskiy (Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt), Christian Timmerer (Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, Bitmovin) and Hermann Hellwagner (Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt)
Abstract: Attempting to cope with fluctuations of network conditions in terms of available bandwidth, latency and packet loss, and to deliver the highest quality of video (and audio) content to users, research on adaptive video streaming has attracted intense efforts from the research community and huge investments from technology giants. How successful these efforts and investments are, is a question that needs precise measurements of the results of those technological advancements. HTTP-based Adaptive Streaming (HAS) algorithms, which seek to improve video streaming over the Internet, introduce video bitrate adaptivity in a way that is scalable and efficient. However, how each HAS implementation takes into account the wide spectrum of variables and configuration options, brings a high complexity to the task of measuring the results and visualizing the statistics of the performance and quality of experience. In this paper, we introduce CAdViSE, our Cloud-based Adaptive Video Streaming Evaluation framework for the automated testing of adaptive media players. The paper aims to demonstrate a test environment which can be instantiated in a cloud infrastructure, examines multiple media players with different network attributes at defined points of the experiment time, and finally concludes the evaluation with visualized statistics and insights into the results.
Keywords: HTTP Adaptive Streaming, Media Players, MPEG-DASH, Network Emulation, Automated Testing, Quality of Experience
Abstract: HTTP adaptive streaming with chunked transfer encoding can offer low-latency streaming without sacrificing the coding efficiency.This allows media segments to be delivered while still being packaged. However, conventional schemes often make widely inaccurate bandwidth measurements due to the presence of idle periods between the chunks and hence this is causing sub-optimal adaptation decisions. To address this issue, we earlier proposed ACTE (ABR for Chunked Transfer Encoding), a bandwidth prediction scheme for low-latency chunked streaming. While ACTE was a significant step forward, in this study we focus on two still remaining open areas, namely (i) quantifying the impact of encoding parameters, including chunk and segment durations, bitrate levels, minimum interval between IDR-frames and frame rate onACTE, and (ii) exploring the impact of video content complexity on ACTE. We thoroughly investigate these questions and report on our findings. We also discuss some additional issues that arise in the context of pursuing very low latency HTTP video streaming.
Authors: Abdelhak Bentaleb (National University of Singapore), Christian Timmerer (Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, Bitmovin), Ali C. Begen (Ozyegin University, Networked Media), Roger Zimmermann (National University of Singapore)
Keywords: HAS; ABR; DASH; CMAF; low-latency; HTTP chunked transfer encoding; bandwidth measurement and prediction; RLS; encoding parameters; FFmpeg
Abstract: Volumetric media has the potential to provide the six degrees of freedom (6DoF) required by truly immersive media. However, achieving 6DoF requires ultra-high bandwidth transmissions, which real-world wide area networks cannot provide economically. Therefore, recent efforts have started to target efficient delivery of volumetric media, using a combination of compression and adaptive streaming techniques. It remains, however, unclear how the effects of such techniques on the user perceived quality can be accurately evaluated. In this paper, we present the results of an extensive objective and subjective quality of experience (QoE) evaluation of volumetric 6DoF streaming. We use PCC-DASH, a standards-compliant means for HTTP adaptive streaming of scenes comprising multiple dynamic point cloud objects. By means of a thorough analysis we investigate the perceived quality impact of the available bandwidth, rate adaptation algorithm, viewport prediction strategy and user’s motion within the scene. We determine which of these aspects has more impact on the user’s QoE, and to what extent subjective and objective assessments are aligned.
Authors:Jeroen van der Hooft (Ghent University), Maria Torres Vega (Ghent University), Christian Timmerer (Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, Bitmovin), Ali C. Begen (Ozyegin University, Networked Media), Filip De Turck (Ghent University), Raimund Schatz (Alpen-Adria Universität Klagenfurt & AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, Austria)
Keywords: Volumetric Media; HTTP Adaptive Streaming; 6DoF; MPEG V-PCC; QoE Assessment; Objective Metrics
International Conference on Quality of Multimedia Experience (QoMEX)
May 26-28, 2020, Athlone, Ireland
http://qomex2020.ie/
High-tech meets history. When thousands of international software developers gather at the Vienna Imperial Castle (Hofburg Wien), you can feel that magic is about to happen. Exactly that occurred on November 28 and 29 at this year’s We Are Developers Congress in Vienna.
‘Are you on the Edge? Or still in the Cloud?’ – On one of the three stages, Josef Hammer inspired over 200 IT enthusiasts with a 30-minute talk on Edge Computing and 5G networks. As with the transition from mainframes to desktop computers, in the upcoming years a lot of processing will move from the cloud to the edge of the network, i.e. closer to the user. This will particularly affect areas with high data volume (IoT, AI) and low latency requirements (IoT).
Josef gave a short introduction to this exciting new area and its benefits and use cases, which frameworks and tools developers can use right now, and where we might be headed. Especially the presentation of our 5G Playground Carinthia was curiously followed by the attendees who enjoyed a first glance at the ambitious research projects conducted here.
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Mit dem 5G Summit Carinthia, ein Kurzsymposium zur neuen Mobilfunktechnologie 5G, wurde heute der 5G Playground Carinthia feierlich eröffnet. Der 5G Playground Carinthia ist österreichweit die erste Serviceeinrichtung für die Erforschung und Weiterentwicklung von 5G-spezifischen Anwendungen, Services und Geschäftsmodellen. Das Bundesministerium für Verkehr, Innovation und Technology (BMVIT) sowie das Land Kärnten finanzieren dieses einzigartige Forschungslabor im Süden Österreichs. A1 Telekom Austria stellt die technische Infrastruktur zur Verfügung.
Der 5G Playground Carinthia bietet allen Forschungs-, Innovations- und Bildungseinrichtungen sowie KMUs und Start Ups die einzigartige Möglichkeit ihre Produkte und Anwendungen mit dieser neuen Technologie zu testen und im Echtbetrieb zu erproben.
Die Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt und insbesondere das Institut für Informationstechnologie beteiligt sich an dem 5GPlayground mit einen Use-Case über “Virtual Realities”. Das Projekt erforscht, entwickelt, erprobt und evaluiert ausgewählte VR-Anwendungen über 5G-Netze, z.B. Streaming von 360°-Videos und von neuen Formen immersiver Medien, etwa von volumetrischen Daten (Point Clouds). Diese Anwendungen erfordern und testen sowohl die hohen Datenraten als auch die extrem geringen Verzögerungszeiten von 5G-Netzen, im Downlink (Streaming zu einer VR-Brille) wie auch im Uplink (Streaming von Live-Inhalten von einer 360°-Kamera weg). Darüber hinaus werden Edge-Computing-Komponenten genutzt, die 5G vorsieht, um höhere Präsentationsqualität und raschere Reaktionszeiten des VR-Systems bei Bewegung/Interaktion eines Nutzers zu erreichen. Es werden VR-Systeme entwickelt, welche die Leistungsfähigkeit von 5G zu demonstrieren erlauben.
Link: https://5gplayground.at/
Philipp Moll presented the paper “Inter-Server Game State Synchronization using Named Data Networking” on the ACM Conference on Information-Centric Networking 2019 in Macau, China.
Authors: Philipp Moll, Sebastian Theuermann, Natascha Rauscher, Hermann Hellwagner (Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt), Jeff Burke (UCLA)
Abstract: In this paper, we develop a system for inter-server game state synchronization using the NDN architecture. We use Minecraft as a real-world example of online games and extend Minecraft’s single-server architecture to work as multi-server game. In our prototype,we use two different NDN-based approaches for the dissemination of game state updates in server clusters. In a naive approach, servers request game state updates for small segments of the game worldfrom other servers of the cluster. In an improved approach – the region manifest approach– servers identify changed parts of the world by subscribing to manifest files containing information about world regions managed by the other servers of the cluster. An apparent downside of the NDN approaches is the high overhead when handling small-sized game state updates, but our evaluation shows that NDN already improves on IP-based implementations regarding the resulting traffic volume when three or more servers are involved. Furthermore, caused by NDN’s inherent multicast functionality, the advantage over IP increases with the size of theserver cluster. Moreover, the use of NDN-based approaches leads to benefits beyond traffic reduction only. The name-based host-independent access to world regions allows to scale server clusters easier.
The paper full paper can be found on: https://conferences.sigcomm.org/acm-icn/2019/proceedings/icn19-25.pdf
The ACM Multimedia Systems Conference (MMSys) is held June 8-11, 2020 in Istanbul, Turkey and provides a forum for researchers to present and share their latest research findings in multimedia systems. While research about specific aspects of multimedia systems are regularly published in the various proceedings and transactions of the networking, operating systems, real-time systems, databases, mobile computing, distributed systems, computer vision, and middleware communities, MMSys aims to cut across these domains in the context of multimedia data types. This provides a unique opportunity to investigate the intersections and the interplay of the various approaches and solutions developed across these domains to deal with multimedia data types.
General Chairs
— Ali C. Begen (Ozyegin University and Networked Media, Turkey)
— Laura Toni (University College London, UK)
TPC Chairs
— Özgü Alay (Simula Metropolitan and University of Oslo, Norway)
— Christian Timmerer (Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt and Bitmovin, Austria)
Link: ACM MMSYS 2020
Abstract: Video streaming is one of the top traffic contributors in the Internet and a frequent research subject. It is expected that streaming traffic will grow 4-fold for video globally and 9-fold for mobile video between 2017 and 2022. In this paper, we present an automatized measurement framework for evaluating video streaming QoE in operational broadband networks, using headless streaming with a Docker-based client, and a server-side implementation allowing for the use of multiple video players and adaptation algorithms. Our framework allows for integration with the MONROE testbed and Bitmovin Analytics, which bring on the possibility to conduct large-scale measurements in different networks, including mobility scenarios, and monitor different parameters in the application, transport, network, and physical layers in real-time.
Authors: Cise Midoglu (Simula), Anatoliy Zabrovskiy (AAU), Özgü Alay (Simula), Daniel Hölbling-Inzko (Bitmovin), Carsten Griwodz (Univ. of Oslo), Christian Timmerer (AAU/Bitmovin)
Keywords: adaptive streaming, network measurements, OTT video analytics, QoE
Link: ACMMM 2019