Optimal transmission for scalable video coded streaming in cellular wireless networks with the cooperation of local peer-to-peer network

Abstract

We study the problem of transmitting scalable video coded streams in a hybrid scenario including a global cellular network and a local peer-to-peer network. Given desirable channel condition in cellular downlink, some cellular user equipments can fetch the video chunks via the cellular base station directly, and also provide relay service via the local peer-to-peer network for other user equipments unable to meet their basic video quality. To take the advantage of channel diversity gains, the method of random linear coding is adopted to generate linear combinations of the video chunks for transmission in both the cellular and peer-to-peer networks. To optimize the cellular and peer-to-peer transmission arrangement, we first formulate it as a mixed integer nonlinear programming problem, which becomes more complicated when the number of user equipments increases. Then, we convert it to a quasi-convex optimization problem by approximating the indicator function with a continuous step function, and it can be solved by a centralized approach. Furthermore, a primal-dual decomposition approach is developed and a distributed algorithm is proposed accordingly. Simulation results show that the proposed approach achieves a near-optimal solution.