Matthew Broadbent

Towards network-wide QoE fairness using openflow-assisted adaptive video streaming

Video streaming is an increasingly popular way to consume media content. Adaptive video streaming is an emerging delivery technology which aims to increase user QoE and maximise connection utilisation. Many implementations naively estimate bandwidth from a one-sided client perspective, without taking into account other devices in the network. This behaviour results in unfairness and could potentially lower QoE for all clients. We propose an OpenFlow-assisted QoE Fairness Framework that aims to fairly maximise the QoE of multiple competing clients in a shared network environment. By leveraging a Software Defined Networking technology, such as OpenFlow, we provide a control plane that orchestrates this functionality. The evaluation of our approach in a home networking scenario introduces user-level fairness and network stability, and illustrates the optimisation of QoE across multiple devices in a network.

HomeVisor: Adapting Home Network Environments

This paper considers SDN, and OpenFlow in particular, as technology to develop the next generation of more flexible, configurable and automated home networks. We identify the problems with the current state of the art in home networking, which includes a lack of user engagement in home network maintenance and configuration, Internet bandwidth limitations, and a lack of ISP reconfiguration and troubleshooting tools. We propose HomeVisor, a novel remote home network management tool. In this paper, we evaluate HomeVisors ability to outsource control to an entity outside the home network. This includes the overhead of multiple slices within the home, and the effect of controller latency on network performance.

A Scalable User Fairness Model for Adaptive Video Streaming Over SDN-Assisted Future Networks

The growing demand for online distribution of high quality and high throughput content is dominating todays Internet infrastructure. This includes both production and user-generated media. Among the myriad of media distribution mechanisms, HTTP adaptive streaming (HAS) is becoming a popular choice for multi-screen and multi-bitrate media services over heterogeneous networks. HAS applications often compete for network resources without any coordination between each other. This leads to quality of experience (QoE) fluctuations on delivered content, and unfairness between end users, while new network protocols, technologies, and architectures, such as software defined networking (SDN), are being developed for the future Internet. The programmability, flexibility, and openness of these emerging developments can greatly assist the distribution of video over the Internet. This is driven by the increasing consumer demands and QoE requirements. This paper introduces a novel user-level fairness model UFair and its hierarchical variant UFairHA, which orchestrate HAS media streams using emerging network architectures and incorporate three fairness metrics (video quality, switching impact, and cost efficiency) to achieve user-level fairness in video distribution. UFairHA has also been implemented in a purpose-built SDN testbed using open technologies, including OpenFlow. Experimental results demonstrate the performance and feasibility of our design for video distribution over future networks.

Storisphere: from TV watching to community story telling

Conventional television services have been increasingly challenged by the more interactive and user-centric video sharing applications. With the growing popularity of social networks and video services, users are becoming the editors and broadcasters of their own stories. User-generated video content, which provides unique perspectives from individuals, is likely to be the new medium to complement professional broadcast TV for story sharing, especially in user communities of specific interest. We have developed Storisphere to provide a web-based collaborative video content workspace for members of a community to compose and share video stories, using desktop or mobile devices. Storisphere is currently being evaluated for video storytelling by various user communities.

OpenCache: Leveraging SDN to demonstrate a customisable and configurable cache

Efficient content delivery is a constantly evolving challenge on the modern Internet. Reducing the impact of duplicate deliveries of identical content is a key factor in reducing congestion and transit costs for smaller networks. This work leverages SDN concepts and mechanisms in order to transparently store and deliver content from a local cache to the client, thus lightening the load on the WAN and relieving the necessity for urgent network capacity upgrades. An open interface to the cache presents owners with new possibilities for cache control and maintenance. This demonstration showcases a prototype implementation in action on a large-scale OpenFlow testbed deployed across Europe.

OpenCache: A software-defined content caching platform

Network operators recognise that Content Delivery Networks are essential for meeting user Internet application and content demands. The infrastructure must be tightly integrated to provide request routing, content caching, load balancing, scalability and reliability, whilst minimising deployment time and complexity. A major step towards achieving these goals is to embrace recent Software Defined Network and Network Function Virtualisation objectives and design principles. This paper outlines the OpenCache API; an interface used to define the behaviour and operation of an SDN-based content delivery platform in real-time. We demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of such an API by implementing load-balancing and fail-over functionalities as part of an experimental deployment.

Multi-Platform Application Toolkit

This paper presents the current status of the Multi-Platform Application Toolkit, an extensible platform for the simple creation of interactive multi-media applications for connected TVs. Developing applications from scratch requires considerable resources and for this reason they are often simply too costly for single formats or shows to contemplate. The situation is exacerbated when multiple target platforms are considered, such as HbbTV and Open Web. MPAT addresses this using an approach based on WordPress, aiming to make application development affordable and sustainable while creating a new eco-system for content creators, theme and plug-in developers. With MPAT, media companies can semi-automatically author their set of customised applications that are then populated with content by the editorial staff or by linking MPAT to existing content management solutions.

Combinatorial Auction-Based Resource Allocation in the Fog

Network service composition is becoming increasingly flexible, thanks in part to advances in virtualisation and cloud technologies. As these penetrate further into networks, providers are often looking to leverage this infrastructure to improve their service delivery. This desire poses a number of obstacles, including a diversity in device capabilities and the need for a value exchange mechanism. In this demonstration, we present a platform that seeks to address a selection of these challenges.

Digital Authoring of Interactive Public Display Applications

HbbTV (Hybrid broadcast broadband TV) is an emerging force in the entertainment industry, and proper standarisation of technologies would be hugely beneficial for the creation of content. HbbTV aims to realise this vision and has been widely successful thus far. This paper introduces MPAT (Multi Platform Application Toolkit), which is the result of multiple organisational entities effort and dedication to extend the capabilities and functionality of HbbTV, in order to ease the design and creation of interactive TV applications. The paper also showcases the versatility of MPAT, by describing a series of case studies which provide digital storytelling and visual authoring of interactive applications which transcend traditional TV use cases, and instead provide a gripping interactive experience via integration with public displays.

SDQ: Enabling rapid QoE experimentation using Software Defined Networking

The emerging network paradigm of Software Defined Networking (SDN) has been increasingly adopted to improve the Quality of Experiences (QoE) across multiple HTTP adaptive streaming (HAS) instances. However, there is currently a gap between research and reality in this field. QoE models, which offer user-level context to network management processes, are often tested in a simulation environment. Such environments do not consider the effects that network protocols, client programs, and other real world factors may have on the outcomes. Ultimately, this can lead to models not functioning as expected in real networks. On the other hand, setting up an experiment that reflects reality is a time consuming process requiring expert knowledge. This paper shares designs and guidelines of an SDN experimentation framework (SDQ), which offers rapid evaluation of QoE models using real network infrastructures.