Opportunistic scheduling and rate adaptation for scalable broadcast video streaming

In this work we propose an adaptation framework where video packets are opportunistically scheduled for broadcast/multicast media streaming applications. The scheduling mechanism operates based on the average and instantaneous user distributions and radio link channel quality, information obtained through the cellular uplink channel. In our framework we use H.264 Scalable Video Coding (SVC) to generate multiple independent streams or scalable sub-streams, further split into video packets, which are opportunistically scheduled with the goal of maximizing the average quality of service for the end user. Based on the design of our delivery system, we finally foresee practical implementations of efficient scheduling algorithms for broadcast video delivery over next generation cellular networks.