A Novel Approach to Supporting Multipoint-to-Point Video Transmission over Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

CheeOnn CHOW
Hiroshi ISHII

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Communications   Vol.E90-B    No.8    pp.2046-2055
Publication Date: 2007/08/01
Online ISSN: 1745-1345
DOI: 10.1093/ietcom/e90-b.8.2046
Print ISSN: 0916-8516
Type of Manuscript: PAPER
Category: Network
Keyword: 
mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs),  video transmission,  multipoint-to-point (MP2P) transmission,  multiple description coding (MDC),  dynamic source routing (DSR),  

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Summary: 
It is predicted that there will be a high demand for video applications in future wireless networks including wireless ad hoc networks. However, supporting video applications over mobile ad hoc networks is more complicated than with other networks due to the lack of support from a preinstalled infrastructure. In this paper, we tackle this problem by adopting the concept of multipoint-to-point video transmission used in wire-line networks. A novel framework designed with features to accommodate the characteristics of ad hoc networks is presented. There are two key features in our proposal. First, Multiple Description Coding (MDC) scheme is used for video coding to reduce the redundancy by avoiding the transmission of duplicate video frames. Second, the routing protocol is expanded to include finding disjoint routes from video sources to the receiver so that a single link breakage or a single intermediate node failure affects transmission from only the minimum number of nodes. Furthermore, the use of disjoint routes also enables the workload to be distributed more evenly within the network. A simulation study was carried out using NS-2 to demonstrate the performance of the proposed mechanism. We show that the proposed mechanism outperforms conventional point-to-point transmission, especially under conditions of high mobility.