Enhancing MPEG DASH performance via server and network assistance

MPEG DASH provides formats that are suitable to stream media content over HTTP. Typically, the DASH client adaptively requests small chunks of media based on the available bandwidth and other resources. This client-pull technology has proven to be more flexible, firewall-friendly and CDN-scalable than server-push technologies. However, service providers have less control given the decentralized and client-driven nature of DASH, which introduces new challenges for them to offer a consistent and possibly higher quality of service for premium users. This issue is addressed by MPEG in a new work referred to as SAND: Server and Networkassisted DASH. The key features of SAND are asynchronous network-to-client and network-to-network communication, and the exchange of quality-related assisting information in such a way that it does not delay or interfere with the delivery of the streaming media content. MPEG is expected to publish and complete the work on SAND as a new part of the MPEG DASH standard by early 2016.