Receiver buffer requirement for video streaming over TCP

TCP is one of the most widely used transport protocols for video streaming. However, the rate variability of TCP makes it difficult to provide good video quality. To accommodate the variability, video streaming applications require receiver-side buffering. In current practice, however, there are no systematic guidelines for the provisioning of the receiver buffer, and smooth playout is insured through over-provisioning. In this work, we are interested in memory-constrained applications where it is important to determine the right size of receiver buffer in order to insure a prescribed video quality. To that end, we characterize video streaming over TCP in a systematic and quantitative manner. We first model a video streaming system analytically and derive an expression of receiver buffer requirement based on the model. Our analysis shows that the receiver buffer requirement is determined by the network characteristics and desired video quality. Experimental results validate our model and demonstrate that the receiver buffer requirement achieves desired video quality.