DBuffer: A state machine oriented control system for DASH

Abstract

The popularity of Internet video streaming services has dramatically increased, leveraged by the emerging Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH) standard. DASH also favors the growth of video content access by mobile devices. However, due to fluctuating bandwidth and high latency, mobile networks, e.g. 3G, remain a challenging environment. The user's Quality of Experience (QoE) in this scenario constantly needs to improve. One way to achieve this is through the development of a better adaptation logic that reduces rebuffering events and delivers higher and more stable video qualities. In this paper, we present DBuffer, a control system developed for improving the QoE during a streaming session through mobile networks. DBuffer estimates the ideal video quality to request, during a 3G streaming session, through client-side buffer analysis. The main component of the control system is a buffer-based state machine, which manages the adaptation logic. Our experimental results show that DBuffer outperforms some of the existing advanced adaptation techniques.