Mobile CDN enhancements for QoE-improved content delivery in mobile operator networks

• Published in: IEEE network 2013-03, Vol.27 (2), p.14-21
• Main Authors: Yousaf, F. Z., Liebsch, M., Maeder, A., Schmid, S.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Attraction; Content management; Infrastructure; Internet; Mobile communication; Multimedia communication; Networks; Operators; Quality of service; Streaming media; TCP (protocol); Traffic engineering; Traffic flow; Video communication; Video on demand; Wireless communication; Wireless network; Youtube
• ISSN: 0890-8044; 1558-156X
• DOI: 10.1109/MNET.2013.6485091

With the popularity of YouTube and other video services (e.g., VoD), video content is becoming a dominant traffic type in mobile networks and will soon form the major bulk of the traffic. This poses a serious challenge to mobile network operators when it comes to delivering video content to multiple users in a wireless environment, where the quality of experience of each user must be met as per user expectation. To this end, mobile content distribution networks (mCDNs) are gaining attraction as one possibility to enable controllable and resource-efficient delivery of video content. In this article we motivate the deployment of mCDN serving point (mCSP) nodes in an mCDN infrastructure and describe its benefits for a mobile network operator who wishes to employ an mCDN system in their existing mobile network architecture. In this respect we highlight the key features and requirements of such an mCSP node and the advantages it offers. One particularly beneficial feature of our proposed mCSP node is to ensure fairness during the delivery of progressive video streaming services employed by the likes of YouTube, Daily Motion, and others. In this regard we first highlight the unfairness issue when delivering progressive video streaming services over TCP to multiple users over a wireless network infrastructure and its effect on the user perceived QoE. We then demonstrate, as a proof of concept, the effectiveness of employing application-level scheduling in an mCSP node to ensure fairness among multiple simultaneous progressive video sessions in scenarios where the backhaul link in a mobile network infrastructure may become congested.