Content-aware packet scheduling for multiuser scalable video delivery over wireless networks

Wireless video transmission is prone to potentially low data rates and unpredictable degradations due to timevarying channel conditions. Such degradations are difficult to overcome using conventional video coding techniques. Scalable video coding offers a flexible bitstream that can be dynamically adapted to fit the prevailing channel conditions. Advances in scalable video compression techniques, such as the newly adopted scalable extension of H.264/AVC, as well as recent advances in wireless access technologies offer possibilities for tackling this challenge. In this paper, a content-aware scheduling and resource allocation scheme is proposed, that uses a gradient-based scheduling framework in conjunction with scalable video coding techniques to provide multiple high quality video streams over a range of operating conditions to multiple users. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme performs better than conventional content-independent scheduling techniques.