An Objective Multi-layer QoE Evaluation For TCP
Video Streaming
Peng Yu, Fan Liu, Yang Geng, Wenjing Li, Xuesong Qiu
State Key Laboratory of Networking and Switching Technology
Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications
Beijing 100876, China
Abstract— It’s a challenge to effectively assess Quality of
Experience (QoE) for TCP video streaming with network
performance parameters, to resolve this problem, an objective
hierarchical Evaluation for Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)
video streaming is proposed under video playback scenarios.
QoE assessment for TCP video streaming is resolved into two
sub-steps. In the first place, in consideration of video playback
performance parameters affecting QoE, the authors demonstrate
three novel application-layer metrics. Further, impact of network
status on video playback performance is investigated and the
authors propose high level network-layer parameters. Then the
correlation between the network-layer parameters and
application-layer metrics is characterized through analysis and
inference. In the secondly place, subjective tests are conducted to
evaluate QoE from application-layer metrics. Ultimately, the
authors validate analysis and model by simulations and
experiments in real networks. The experimental study shows that
the proposed method performs well in assessing QoE of TCP
video streaming.
Keywords—QoE; TCP; application-layer metrics; network
parameters; subjective experiment
I. INTRODUCTION
Internet video has been fast growing last years. It was
predicted that consumer Internet video traffic would comprise
around 69 percent of all consumer Internet traffic in 2017,up
from 57 percent in 2012 [1]. With the ever-increasing of video
traffic, whether video stream quality is acceptable by end users
or not is of great importance and urgency for network
operators, content providers, streaming servers and ISPs [2].
As applications such as IP-based TV, video sharing
websites and P2P streaming are promptly and widely adopted
in the Internet, and hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) video
streaming over TCP is becoming more and more popular. In
this paper, we focus on QoE assessment of TCP video
streaming.
To evaluate QoE for HTTP/TCP videos with network
performance parameters under video playback scenarios, the
authors propose an objective hierarchical QoE Evaluation for
TCP video streaming. In consideration of video playback
performance parameters affecting QoE, the authors present
three novel application-layer metrics: initial buffer delay, mean
re-buffering duration and re-buffering frequency. Further, how
network status impacts video playback performance is
investigated and the authors demonstrate network-layer
metrics. Then the correlation from the network-layer
parameters to application-layer metrics is analytically
characterized. Besides, the authors perform subjective tests to
evaluate QoE from application-layer metrics. Ultimately, the
authors validate analysis and model by simulations and
experiments in real networks. The experimental study shows
that the proposed method performs well in assessing QoE of
TCP video streaming.
The remainder of the paper is structured as follows. Section
II describes related works and highlights the method adopted in
this article. Section III contributes the correlation between
network-layer parameters and application-layer metrics by
analytic derivation, and simulation experiments are conducted
to validate theoretical analysis. Section IV illustrates subjective
experiments to evaluate QoE from application-layer metrics.
Besides, the simulation results and our main findings are also
demonstrated in this section. Our conclusion is drawn in
section V.
II. R
ELATED WORK
Conventionally, Internet video traffic runs over user
datagram protocol (UDP) instead of TCP. The trend of TCP
streaming rely on the fact that the deployment and use of
HTTP/TCP multimedia applications is easier than UDP based
multimedia applications in consideration of the wide use of
network address translation (NAT) and firewalls[3]. Distinct
from UDP-based streaming, reliable connection-oriented TCP-
based streaming presents new features. Retransmission
mechanism handles packet loss, and avoid occurrence of frame
miss, thus video quality not degrading in various network
environments. Moreover, progressive download technology
achieves that end users can watch incompletely downloaded
video clips.
With the combination of subjective and objective analysis,
many metrics have been proposed for QoE assessment of UDP-
based video streaming, such as the Peak Signal-to-Noise-Ratio
(PSNR) and Structural Similarity Index Measurement (SSIM)
[4]. These assessment methods mainly rely on video artifacts
such as such as slice error, blocking, ghosting and freeze frame.
These metrics cannot actually apply TCP video QoE
assessment with reliable transmission.
To improve quality of TCP-based video streaming
application, metrics such as startup delay (namely, the initial
buffer delay), the buffer under-flow probability and the buffer
978-3-901882-76-0 @2015 IFIP