LAI_LAYOUT_Layout 1 1/16/15 2:44 PM Page 49

A Buffer-Aware
HTTP Live Streaming Approach for
SDN-Enabled 5G Wireless Networks
Chin-Feng Lai, Ren-Hung Hwang, Han-Chieh Chao, Mohammad Mehedi Hassan, and Atif Alamri

Abstract
With increasing interest in the concept of 5G wireless networks and the popular-
ization of mobile devices, users gradually watch videos through mobile devices in
streaming mode rather than off-line mode. However, the latency and lags of
mobile networks will reduce the quality of service. In HTTP live streaming services,
when there are multiple sources for the same content stored in the streaming
servers, the suited quality content is able to be selected for playing according to
the networking bandwidth conditions between servers and user equipment, and the
users can obtain appropriate streaming quality automatically. However, the selec-
tion policy is difficult to be approved between 5G wireless communication net-
works and SDNs. In this study a buffer-aware HTTP live streaming approach is
proposed, which evaluates the weights of media segments to decide the transmit-
ting priorities based on the current playing time and adjust the appropriate trans-
mission path through the decision making network controller according to the
utilization and stability of the routers and switches in SDN. Finally, the experimen-
tal results proved that the approach is able to correct the overall streaming source
sequence with the buffer status to effectively upgrade overall streaming service
quality, as well as maintain a certain level of streaming quality for SDN-enable 5G
wireless networks.

W ith the rapid growth of wireless traffic, the

current wireless technology will reach its
limits in the next 10 years. The future Inter-
national Mobile Telecommunication (IMT)
systems are expecting that 5G communication technology will
be able to achieve some challenging requirements, such as 10
times higher spectral efficiency, five times reduced end-to-end
delay, a 50 Gb/s data rate for low mobility user equipment
(UE), and 5 Gb/s for high mobility UE, etc [1]. Thus it makes
the performance of traditional network architecture increasing-
ly unable to keep up with 5G communication [2, 3]. Therefore,
software-defined networks (SDNs) were regarded as a revolu-
tionary technology to subvert the traditional networking indus-
try [4, 5]. With the emerging technologies of network and
Chin-Feng Lai and Ren-Hung Hwang are with National Chung Cheng
University.
Han-Chieh Chao is with National Ilan University.
Mohammad Mehedi Hassan and Atif Alamri are with King Saud Univer-
sity.
The authors would like to extend their sincere appreciation to the
Deanship of Scientific Research at King Saud University for its funding
of this research through the International Research Group Project
(No. 14-204) and National Science Council of the Republic of China,
Taiwan (NSC 101-2628-E-194-003-MY3, 101-2221-E-197-008-MY3
and 102-2219-E-194-002).
communication, the multimedia streaming that has always been
one of the most bandwidth-consuming services will achieve fur-
ther development. Currently, due to emerging on-line stream-
ing video websites, such as YouTube, Netflix, and Tudou,
people tend to watch movies, videos, and TV programs via
streaming servers, resulting in the discussion of various subjects,
such as how to use appropriate network protocols to transmit
video content, how to effectively reduce the delay time, how to
select appropriate video formats, how to achieve seamless
streaming, and how to balance the operating load between the
streaming servers. Hence the adaptive streaming technologies
were proposed in the past that can dynamically select video
content based on current network conditions or mathematical
capabilities of hardware in order to provide higher-quality
streaming service to users [6, 7]. However, in heterogeneous
networks some studies have attempted to improve the band-
width prediction for effective transmission rates [8, 9].
Therefore, how to provide users with the adaptive stream-
ing services between 5G wireless communication networks
and SDNs will be an interesting challenge. Different from
other studies on 5G networks, this study aims at a dynamic
adjustment video streaming mechanism with HTTP live
streaming (HLS) protocol according to the utilization and sta-
bility of the routers and switches of SDN and the network
condition of 5G, enhancing service quality. The paper is orga-
nized as follows. We first propose the two modes of SDN con-
troller for adaptive streaming. Then we evaluate the traffic
bandwidth based on two modes with different network condi-
tions. Furthermore, the five network scenarios of SDN-

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LAI_LAYOUT_Layout 1 1/16/15 2:44 PM Page 50
Routing
c table
SDN network infrastructure
SDN controller
Streaming
RU
UE Relay
Antenna
5G network infrastructure
RU
UE Antenna
Access node
Figure 1. HTTP live streaming for SDN-enabled 5G wireless networks.
enabled 5G wireless networks are analyzed by numerical
results. Finally, future challenges of SDN-enabled 5G wireless
networks are discussed and conclusions are given.
Multimedia Streaming for SDN-enabled 5G
Wireless Networks
With increasing interest in the concept of next generation net-
works, mobile operators have been deploying heterogeneous
networks to boost network capacity and coverage, allowing
users to enjoy ubiquitous network services. Furthermore, in
order to achieve better transmission efficiency, potential tech-
nologies for reconfigurable networks have been investigated,
such as 5G wireless communication networks and SDN, to
build efficient network infrastructures. SDN is regarded as a
revolutionary technology to virtualize networks for configuring
and maintaining servers and routers easily that will likely play
a critical role for designing 5G wireless communication net-
works. With the concept of network virtualization, SDN pre-
sents a software layer to make the network device adjustments
through SDN defined interfaces instead of configuring hard-
ware network devices manually. Therefore, there are two
planes in SDN network devices: the control plane, which
determines where network packages are sent, and the data
plane, which forwards network packages based on the control
plane instructions. Because of this separation, network admin-
istrators are no longer executing all the control rules on the
physical network devices individually. In the other words, the
traditional network device is only designated for the transmis-
sion of network packages on the data plane. The novel deploy-
ment of network services is not limited to the original network
devices, and enables switching/routing mechanism, traffic
engineering, network optimization engineering virtualization,
network function virtualization, and other functions to achieve
networking advantages, such as agility and flexibility. SDN
also establishes service level agreements (SLA) for satisfying
different service requirements [10]. However, multimedia
streaming, which is one of the most bandwidth-consuming ser-
vices, is an urgent challenge, and researchers have been
designing new architectures and mechanisms for providing a
multimedia streaming mechanism on SDN-enabled 5G wire-
less networks. That is the motivation for the buffer-aware
HTTP live streaming approach proposed in this study for
50
Segments index
#EXTM3U
#EXT-X-TARGETDURATION:10
#EXTINF:10,
http://sample.com/1.ts
#EXTINF:10,
Multimedia server http://samples.com/2.ts
#ENDLIST
Router Router Router
DU
Switching
processing Data center
storing
1
SDN-enabled 5G wireless networks, as shown in Fig. 1. It fol-
lows the previously proposed traffic engineering of SND, and
further discussion was presented on how to dynamically adjust
the streaming mechanism by SDN controllers according to the
buffer status of UEs and 5G network traffic conditions.
The Proposed Buffer-Aware HTTP Live
Streaming Mechanism
Most adaptive streaming adjustment mechanisms select the
optimal or corresponding bit rate media segment for stream-
ing play according to the variance in bandwidth [11, 12], How-
ever, the adjustment mechanisms do not consider the
transmission issue between heterogeneous networks. There-
fore, this study proposes a dynamic adaptive streaming mech-
anism, based on quality of service (QoS) by researching the
buffer status of UEs buffer, and aims to make a dynamic
adjustment according to the 5G wireless communication net-
work. After obtaining the prediction of 5G network band-
width, the SDN network condition is easy to be measured by
the SDN controller. Furthermore, according to the previous
research results [13, 14], the users have an interval of scores
for the resolution factor or quantification parameter factor,
which is smooth, meaning that users cannot easily recognize
the differences in videos according to these scores. Thus, it is
believed that such coding parameters have very slight influ-
ence on video quality. However, these adjustment parameters
significantly influence the bit rate and file size of the encoded
videos, which is related to network bandwidth for streaming.
The streaming mechanism, proposed for the above reasons,
preloads media segments under quality permission, where bet-
ter quality media segments are downloaded on the local side
for buffering. This mode is called the buffering mode. Good
quality is defined as the sum of two smooth scores, meaning
that the change in picture quality on this score is small for the
users. If the network condition does not allow better buffer-
ing, the media segment quality is lower than the threshold and
buffering is abandoned, and segments most suitable for the
bandwidth of the time are adjusted and selected for real-time
streaming according to the network prediction. This mode is
called the real-time streaming mode. The concept of the pro-
posed mechanism is shown in Fig. 2. The initialization is exe-
cuted after the UE starts, and the index file is analyzed in this
IEEE Network • January/February 2015
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stage, where the analyzed resolution and quantifica-
tion parameters are entered to obtain the score
value to determine the lowest-level media informa-
tion that can be preloaded in the play list. This Buffering
level is called the basic level. Afterward, the system mode
enters the preloading stage, the basic level segment
is preloaded for t seconds, and the upper limit of
buffering for preloading is 6t second playing time. Real-time
Therefore, the system determines the size of buffer streaming
in the initialization stage. The size is obtained from mode
6t s
Bmax =
Dseg (1)
where D seg refers to the playing time of a media
segment. This is the playing status after the media
Figure 2. The concept of buffer-aware HTTP live streaming mechanism.
segment is preloaded, and there are two media
streaming modes during play: buffering mode and
real-time streaming mode.
Buffering Mode
This mode aims to preload media segments of better quality
into the buffer of the local side so the user will not receive
content of worse quality even if network bandwidth changes
within a period of time. As the system is designed with t-sec-
onds preload time, it enters into this mode when starting to
play. There are two dynamic adaptation strategies in buffering
mode: scale up mode for improving the level of quality when
the playing time length of a prestored media segment is
greater than 2t seconds; and scale down mode when the video
length is shorter than 2t–1 seconds. In order to effectively
evaluate the heterogeneous network conditions and adjust the
quality of the media segment to be buffered in this mode, this
study proposes a combination of a buffer-based bandwidth
forecasting method and level equation for the dynamic adap-
tive adjustment strategy in buffering mode. The design con-
cept is detailed as follows.
Buffer Bandwidth Forecasting Method — The buffer-based
bandwidth forecasting method is designed by observing the
change in the stream playing length stored in the buffer. It is
noteworthy that the media segment length in the buffer only
can increase sharply while the network condition becomes
highly desirable, but not decrease rapidly since the consump-
tion of the buffer area depends on the video playing speed of
the UE. When the network condition is good, the download
speed increases, and the segments accumulate rapidly. Other-
wise, the segments cannot be downloaded, but the consump-
tion rate is not influenced. Therefore, this approach mainly
detects the changes when there is large growth in the network
condition. In terms of method design and implementation, the
number of downloaded segments is recorded once per second,
five consecutive data packets are multiplied by the segment
playing length, and calculated by the least square method to
determine slope m. If the slope is greater than zero, meaning
the playing time of the buffer area increases, Eq. 2 uses the
least square method to calculate slope and derivation,
xy + x ⋅ y
m=
x2 + x 2 (2)
where x is the data number, and y is the number of segments
in the data.
In order to effectively evaluate the increasing trend, three
consecutive slopes greater than zero are averaged to calculate
the trend of change in seven consecutive data points to fore-
cast the bandwidth. Based on this method, when the product
IEEE Network • January/February 2015
• Reserve better QoS of video segment in buffer
• Define media score by looking up resolution and quality tables
• Using level equation and buffer-based bandwidth prediction
• Scale up media level with having more than N second buffer time
• Scale down media level having less than N-1 second buffer time
Media buffer time is less
than or equal to zero
• Select best fit size of media segment Multimedia segment
• Evaluate bandwidth with polynomial level is greater than or
regression equal to basic level
• Error correction
of the average slope and segment time is 0.5, it means that the
cumulative video length and time are growing in positive cor-
relation. When the buffer time is multiplied, it means the
download speed is two times the bandwidth for the current
segment, thus forecasting the increasing amplitude of the
bandwidth. According to Table 1a, the bandwidth increasing
amplitude can be obtained by this method.
Scale Up Mode — In scale up, when the buffer bandwidth
forecasting method detects the network condition becoming
increasingly better, the media segment of better quality is
downloaded. The precondition of this strategy is that the
available playing time exceeds 2t seconds. Such a design
aims at sudden bandwidth drop after scale up, in order to
avoid consuming the buffered media segment after scale up.
The scale up strategy is shown in Table 1b. The level is
scaled up according to the forecast result, and the definition
of the level will be detailed by a level equation. Table 1c
shows the scale up in buffering mode during play. To avoid
the sharp increase of download during the preload stage,
thus jamming the upper limit of the preload, a scale up for
initialization is provided for this mode, and is established
according to which second the 10 seconds of play buffer is
exceeded.
Scale Down Mode — The scale down mode is used when
the network condition is poor and the balance between
download and consumption has failed. In order to continu-
ously provide the user with picture quality above the basic
level, the level is corrected down in order to maintain
buffering mode, thus avoiding the streaming mode, as pos-
sible. As the forecasting method cannot detect the band-
width decreasing amplitude, the scale down method of this
strategy is different from the method for scale up, and the
five recorded data points are multiplied by the media play-
ing length, thus averaging the buffered video playing time.
When the average buffer time is shorter than the thresh-
old, the downloaded media level is scaled down. The scale
down method is shown in Table 1d. In Scenarios 2 and 3,
the system records the number of bytes downloaded per
second in order to prepare for the streaming mode. The
precondition of scale down is that the slope is less than
zero. When scale up or scale down is executed, it will enter
into the idle mode within five seconds, and without any
adjustment. As the recording continues, the number of
occupied buffers, or the downloaded quantity, is recorded
once per second.
Level Equation — The level equation aims to calculate the
51
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(a) Average slope and bandwidth increasing speed

level difference between other representations recorded in Average slope Bandwidth increasing speed
index and the current streaming download. The difference
refers to different bit rates, as the factors depending on 0.5 2¥
bitrate during download determine the speed of download.
The influential factors discussed in this article are resolu- 1.0 4¥
tion and quantification parameters. According to Eqs. 3
and 4, 1.5 6¥

Bitrate1 W1 H1
= × 2.0 8¥
Bitrate2 W2 H 2 (3)
(b) Scale up strategy

Bitrate1 ⎛ Q1 – Q2 ⎞ Slope (ms) Level up

log =⎜ ⎟ × log 2
Bitrate2 ⎝ 6 ⎠ (4)
0.5 £ ms < 1.0 1
the two equations are combined to calculate the gap of the
current bitrate, expressed as 1.0 £ ms < 1.5 2
⎛ Q –Q ⎞
–⎜ t c ⎟
⎝ 6 ⎠ Wt H t 1.5 £ ms < 2.0 3
Gt = 2 ×
× (5)
Wc H c
ms £ 2.0 4
where t refers to the representation to be switched, and c
refers to the representation under download streaming. (c) Scale up strategy in initialization stage
The Gt calculated by Eqs. 4 and 5 refers to the bit rate gap
between two representations, and according to the bandwidth Time Level up
increasing trend, as calculated from the level difference and
buffer bandwidth forecasted by scale up and scale down, the
1st second 4
level equation of Eq. 6 is defined,
2nd second 3
Level = u(Gt – 8) + u(Gt – 6) + u(Gt – 4) + u(Gt – 2)
+ u(Gt – (1/2)) + u(Gt – (1/4)) – 2 (6)
3rd second 2
and G t is substituted in the equation composed of unit step
functions in order to determine the level gap between two 4th second 1
representations for scale up or scale down.
The level equation determines integers between –2 and 4, (d) Scale down strategy
where the level differences calculated by the aforesaid two
equations may be equal to each other, meaning there may be Condition Mean of Tbuf (Tavg) Level down
multiple representations equal to the level difference of the
media segment under streaming download. If the scale up or Condition 1 7 < Tavg £ 9 1
scale down mechanism determines the level, then the choice
best meeting economic benefit is calculated, namely, the sum Condition 2 3 < Tavg £ 7 1
of the scores of the representation, as derived from the score
graph, is divided by G t , where a higher ratio means better Condition 3 0 < Tavg £ 3 Basic level
quality can be obtained by lower bandwidth, expressed as
Table 1. Mapping table of parameters.
Sq + Sr
C P= (7)
Gt
quantity per second, as recorded in the scale down state men-
tioned in the previous section, is used for polynomial regression.
where Sq is the score of the quantification parameter of the Five pieces of historical information are used for two-dimension-
representation, and Sr is the score of resolution. The aforesaid al polynomial regression to calculate the estimated bandwidth at
buffer bandwidth forecasting method of scale up, scale down, the next second. This mode will determine the most proximate
the level equation composed of the dynamic streaming mecha- media segment to download according to the calculated band-
nism of buffering mode, and the flow chart of buffering mode width and Eq. 5. The polynomial regression is defined as
streaming mechanism in the system, are shown in Fig. 3.
y = a0 + a1x + a2x2 + a3x3 + ... + amxm + e (8)
Real-time Streaming Mode
This streaming mode is designed for poor network conditions. As where e is the error constant.
the system presets a t-seconds preloaded media segment, it According to the polynomial regression curve, as deduced
enters into buffering mode. In buffering mode, when the UE has from Eq. 8, the data can be extended into multidimensional
exhausted the media segments temporarily stored in the local data distribution; therefore, the multidimensional polynomial
side, that is, the buffer has no more segments, the system enters curve distribution can be expressed in matrix form. Finally,
into streaming mode and abandons buffering, and thus the band- this result is simplified by vector expression in order to obtain
width is unable to download videos of good quality. The down-
loading task is interrupted immediately when buffering mode is
switched to real-time streaming mode, and the downloaded

52 IEEE Network • January/February 2015

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50
Bandwidth
Polynomial
45 Bn−3
Bn−4 Bn−2
Bn−1
40
Streaming Bn
35
Yes Bn+1
30
t
Seconds
25
lock
20
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Gbps Time (S)
No Tavg ≥ 2t Yes
seconds
Figure 4. 5G bandwidth prediction curve.
No No
m<0 m>0

real-time streaming mode, the downloading task is directly

Yes
abandoned, and the media segment closest to the bandwidth,
Yes Yes as calculated by polynomial regression, is downloaded until
Scale $ Set t 3 times No
seconds lock m>0 the ratio of total playing time of downloaded basic level
Restart media segments to the download time is higher than 1. This
means there is some buffering time for the decision mecha-
nism to convert the mode into buffering mode, and the
Figure 3. Diagram of scaling strategy. regressing buffering mode becomes a decision adjustment
during service initialization phase, that is, the initialization
phase strategy in a scale up decision.
yi = ao + a1 xi + a2 xi 2 + a3 xi 3 +  + am xi m + εi
⎡ yi ⎤ ⎡ 1  xim ⎤ ⎡ a0 ⎤ ⎡ ε1 ⎤ Analysis of System Implementation Results
⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥ (9)
⎢  ⎥ + ⎢    ⎥⎢  ⎥+⎢  ⎥ The five network scenarios proposed in the previous section
⎢ yn ⎥ ⎢ 1  x m ⎥ ⎢ am ⎥ ⎢ εn ⎥ are tested in this article. Figure 5a shows the streaming condi-
⎣ ⎦ ⎢⎣ n ⎥⎦ ⎣ ⎦ ⎣ ⎦
tion of Scenario 1, where the green line is the server-side lim-
 
a = ( X X )–1 X T y
T ited bandwidth of 2048kb/s, the red line is the user-side
captured network bandwidth, and the lower bar chart is the
A two-dimensional polynomial regression curve is deduced number of media segments stored in the local side. Each
from the collected data cluster, which is used for forecasting media segment has one-second playing time. The network
at the next time point, as shown in Fig. 4. In order to deter- capture lasts 66 seconds, and deducts the 5-second initializa-
mine the value of Bn, the first five data are used to determine tion, meaning the actual video playing length is 73 seconds.
the regression curve, and the x coordinate (time) of Bn is sub- For Scenario 2 shown in Fig. 5b, the green line is a 512kb/s
stituted in to obtain the estimated B n value. The red line is bottleneck bandwidth, the blue line is the measured network
the optimal two-dimensional polynomial regression curve cal- bandwidth information, and the red line is the result predicted
culated from the collected data; the blue line is the line chart by two-dimensional polynomial regression in streaming mode.
connected by the measured 5G bandwidth; and the Bn value is As the first five-second initialization phase is preset as buffer-
obtained by substituting 6 in X. ing mode, the regression calculation is executed at the fifth
The B n obtained by the above method is the value second, while the bandwidth is calculated at the sixth second.
obtained by mathematical-model calculation, and is not the The design of this system uses the interval to determine the
actual state. Therefore, the second error correction is carried download quality, and the quality content determined by this
out in the model. The B n calculated by regression and the regression calculation is misjudged at the 6th, 9th, 10th, 14th,
actual 5G bandwidth R measured at the next second are sub- 21st, 26th, and 30th second, meaning a media segment cannot
stituted in be completely downloaded, resulting in picture loss. The net-
B +R work changes down and up, and three scenarios are tested in
Bnc = n (10) this article, as shown in Figures 5c, 5d and 5e. The three sce-
2 narios have similar trends of variance in the number of seg-
and the new value Bnc after correction is obtained. Finally, Bnc ments stored in the buffer. However, the scale up and scale
is substituted in the next round of regression equation calcula- down level gaps are different, which directly influences the
tion in order to correct the errors in the regression prediction buffered number. There are two major differences between
curve for a more accurate forecast. Furthermore, the value Scenarios 3 and 4. The first is the scale up action in the ini-
calculated by the regression equation may be negative. How- tialization phase, as the initial bandwidth in Scenario 4 is four
ever, as the actual 5G network condition will not have nega- to five times that for downloading media segments, and it is
tive bandwidth, the first five data and the forecast result are scaled up by two levels at the third second, in comparison to
averaged as the final predicted value. Scenario 3, where the scale up is executed at the 13th second,
After initializing the streaming service, the SDN controller the subsequent adjustment spends shorter time on balancing
directly presets the UE into buffering mode, and changes into download and consumption. The other difference is that the
real-time streaming mode when the number of buffered bandwidth is continuously scaled down by three levels between
media segments is reduced to 0. The number of bytes down- the 10th and the 20th second in Scenario 4, and the band-
loaded per second is recorded in Scenario 2 and Scenario 3 in width increases sharply by four times within 5 seconds after
buffering mode for calculating the polynomial regression of adjustment; thus, the buffer rapidly grows to the upper limit.
real-time streaming mode. When buffering mode changes into No segments are downloaded during the idle mode; thus, the

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Scenario 1 Scenario 2
2100 20 700
1890 18 600

Bandwidth(kbps)
Bandwidth(kbps) 1680 16
500
1470 14

Buffer size
1260 12 400
1050 10
300
840 8
630 6 200
Buffer size 4 Bandwidth
420 100 Polynomial
210
Bandwidth 2
Boundary Boundary
0 0 0
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49 51 53 55 57 59 61 63 65 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Time (s)
Time (s)
(a) (b)

Scenario 3 Scenario 4
4.5 18 9 30
4 16 8
25

Bandwidth(kbps)
Bandwidth(kbps)

3.5 14 7

Buffer size
3 12

Buffer size
6 20
2.5 10 5
15
2 8 4
1.5 6 3 10
1 4 2
5
0.5 2 1
0 0 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 0
Buffer size 2 4 6 9 10 11 13 14 15 16 16 13 14 13 13 12 11 10 10 9 8 8 8 9 10 11 12 13 13 13 13 Buffer size 3 8 12 13 14 14 14 14 14 13 12 12 11 10 9 9 8 7 6 6 5 6 7 8 14 20 26 29 29 29 28 28 28
Bandwidth 0.4 1.9 1.9 1.9 1.9 1.9 1.9 1.9 1.9 1.7 1.8 1 1 1 0.9 1 1 1 1 1 1 0.5 3.1 3.5 3.7 3.5 3.7 3.5 3.8 3.9 3.6 Bandwidth 2.8 3.6 3.7 3.6 3.7 3.9 3.8 3.7 3.6 3.9 3.7 1.5 2 2 2 2 2 2 1.9 2 1.5 6.9 6.6 7 6.5 6.1 6 4.4 0.8 0.8 5.3 7.8 7.8
Boundary 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 Boundary 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8
Time (s) Time (s)
(c) (d)
Scenario 5
3 18
Bandwidth(kbps)

2.5 15

Buffer size
2 12

1.5 9

1 6

0.5 3

0 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Buffer size 0 2 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 3 2 2 2 1 1 0 0 2 2 3 3 4 5 6 8 9 10 11
Bandwidth 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.8 1.9 1.9 0.9 0.7 0.4 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.7 1.8 1.9 1.8 1.8 1.8 1.8 1.8 1.8 1.8 1.8 1.8
Polynomial 0.5 0.4 0.9 2.7 2.8
Boundary 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
Time (s)
(e)

Figure 5. Streaming bit rates in different environments: a) scenario 1; b) scenario 2; c) scenario 3; d) scenario 4; e) scenario 5.

bandwidth usage rate between the 28th and the 30th second ment to be determined. In the experiment, the overall proto-
decreases greatly. In Scenario 5, where the bandwidth decreas- type architecture was realized and an experimental analysis
es and then increases, the bandwidth in the initialization was carried out. Finally, the results prove that the mechanism
phase is similar to that for downloading. The buffered volume could maintain a certain level of streaming quality for SDN-
is always very low after playing at the fifth second, and then enabled 5G wireless networks and ensure smooth and com-
the bandwidth decreases, consuming all the buffered seg- plete streaming services.
ments, and entering momentarily into the streaming mode,
that is, the condition between the 19th and the 23rd second. It References
returns to buffering mode at the 24th second. It is observed [1] W.-H. Chin, Z. Fan, and R. Haines, “Emerging Technologies and Research
that, even if the buffer has stored segments, it will not switch Challenges for 5G Wireless Networks,” IEEE Wireless Commun., vol. 21,
back to buffering mode, as the system design avoids the con- no. 2, April 2014, pp. 106–12.
tinuous switching of two modes, which would cause incom- [2] X. Wang et al., “Cache in the Air: Exploiting Content Caching and Deliv-
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Biographies
CHIN-FENG LAI [SM’14] has been an associate professor in the Department of
Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Chung Cheng Uni-
versity since 2014. He received the Ph.D. degree from the Department of
Engineering Science at the National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan, in
2008. He received the Best Paper Award at IEEE EUC 2012. He has more
than 100 paper publications. He is an associate editor-in-chief for the Journal
of Internet Technology and serves as editor or associate editor for IET Net-
works , International Journal of Internet Protocol Technology , and the KSII
Transactions on Internet and Information Systems. He is TPC Co-Chair for the
12th IEEE International Conference on Computer and Information Technology
(IEEE CIT-2012), and was selected an honorary member of the Phi Tau Phi
Scholastic Honor Society of the Republic of China in 2009, TC member of
Multimedia Systems & Applications Technical Committee (MSATC), IEEE Cir-
cuits and Systems Society in 2009, and Co-Chair of the Interest Group on
Multimedia Services and Applications over Emerging Networks of the IEEE
Multimedia Communication Technical Committee during 2012–2014. His
research focuses on Internet of Things, body sensor networks, e-healthcare,
mobile cloud computing, cloud-assisted multimedia network, embedded sys-
tems, and so on. He was named an IEEE Senior Member in 2014.
IEEE Network • January/February 2015
REN-HUNG HWANG received his BS degree in computer science and information
engineering from National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, in 1985, and his
MS and Ph.D. degrees in computer science from the University of Massachusetts,
Amherst, Massachusetts, USA, in 1989 and 1993, respectively. He joined the
Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Chung
Cheng University, Chia-Yi, Taiwan, in 1993, where he is now the dean of the Col-
lege of Engineering and a distinguished professor. He is also an adjunct professor
in the Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Sun
Yat Sen University, KaoHsiung Taiwan. His research interests include ubiquitous
computing, peer-to-peer applications, wireless networks, and e-learning.
HAN-CHIEH CHAO [SM’92] is a joint appointed full professor in the Department
of Electronic Engineering and the Institute of Computer Science & Information
Engineering, where also serves as the president of National Ilan University, I-
Lan, Taiwan, R.O.C. He served as the Director of the Computer Center for the
Ministry of Education from September 2008 to July 2010. Dr. Chao is the Edi-
tor-in-Chief for IET Networks, the Journal of Internet Technology, the International
Journal of Internet Protocol Technology, and the International Journal of Ad Hoc
and Ubiquitous Computing. Dr. Chao has served as the guest editor for Mobile
Networking and Applications (ACM MONET), IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in
Communications, IEEE Communications Magazine, Computer Communications,
IEE Proceedings Communications, the Computer Journal, Telecommunication Sys-
tems, Wireless Personal Communications, and Wireless Communications &
Mobile Computing. Dr. Chao is an IEEE Senior Member and a Fellow of IET
(IEE). He is a Chartered Fellow of the British Computer Society.
MOHAMMAD MEHEDI HASSAN [M’12] is an assistant professor in the Informa-
tion Systems Department at the College of Computer and Information Sci-
ences, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He received his Ph.D.
degree in computer engineering from Kyung Hee University, South Korea in
February 2011. He has authored or co-authored more than 70 publications,
including in refereed IEEE/ACM/Springer journals, conference papers, books,
and book chapters. His research interests include cloud collaboration, media
cloud, sensor-cloud, mobile cloud, IPTV, and wirless sensor network.
A TIF A LAMRI [M’12] is an associate professor in the Information Systems
Department at the College of Computer and Information Sciences, King Saud
University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He received the Ph.D. degree in Computer
Science from the University of Ottawa, ON, Canada in 2010. His research
interest includes multimedia assisted health systems, ambient intelligence, wire-
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