Use of Common Media Client and Server Data to Improve Streaming Playback Performance

Metadata

Publisher: SMPTE — White Plains, NY, USA
Doc Type: Journal Article
Content Type: Original Research
Abbreviated Title: SMPTE Mot. Imag. J
Volume: 132, No. 6, pp. 55–60
Abstract: Smooth playback is critical for any streaming service. Naturally, viewers do not enjoy rebuffering events, but less frequent and shorter ones are preferred when they cannot be avoided. However, ensuring smoother playback becomes more challenging as more demanding types of services such as low-latency live (LLL) and 4K streaming become increasingly used. It has been shown many times that adaptive streaming clients compete with each other for available bandwidth and server capacity. The server’s priority in responding to the individual requests sent by these clients should be based on the clients’ time-varying playback buffer conditions. In an earlier article, we presented that the server could wisely allocate its output capacity among the incoming requests and largely mitigate the rebufferings suffered by the clients, provided that the clients informed the server about their buffer statuses using the Common Media Client Data (CMCD) standard. In a more recent study, we developed an alternative solution to the same problem using the Common Media Server Data (CMSD) standard. In this solution, the server’s response to a request that indicated a sufficient buffer level was delayed until the requests that indicated an insufficient buffer level were handled. The server attached a new CMSD parameter to the eventual response disclosing the length of the delay. This parameter avoided misinterpretation and the subsequent incorrect decision by the client’s rate-adaptation logic. Our experiments (for which we offer the source code) showed that the proposed CMSD parameter eliminated unnecessary rate shifting to lower bitrates while reducing the rebuffering rate as well as the rebuffering duration. This article summarizes these findings and illustrates other envisioned use cases for the CMSD standard.
Publication Date: 2023-07-01
DOI: 10.5594/JMI.2023.3279467
ISSN: Print: 1545-0279 | Electronic: 2160-2492
Link: https://doi.org/10.5594/JMI.2023.3279467
Author(s): Ali C. Begen
bio
Ali C. Begen is currently a computer science professor at Ozyegin University,?Istanbul,?Turkiye, and a technical consultant with Comcast’s Advanced Technology and Standards Group. Previously, he was a research and development engineer at Cisco. He received a PhD in electrical and computer engineering from Georgia Tech in 2006. To date, he has received several academic and industry awards (including an Emmy Award for Technology and Engineering) and was granted over 30 US patents. In 2020 and 2021, he was listed among the world’s most influential scientists in the subfield of networking and telecommunications. More details are at https://ali.begen.net.
Yasser Syed
bio
Yasser Syed is a distinguished architect at Comcast, whose work focuses on developing and implementing next-generation video technologies and workflows. He received a PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington. He has contributed a substantial amount of content and effort to many video standards-related areas. Currently, he chairs the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) Working Group 7 (WG7) on DASH/adaptive streaming and also leads its Advanced Coding Technologies group, which created the high-dynamic-range (HDR) application and next-generation codec constraint specifications for the cable industry. He is also a 2021 recipient of the SCTE award for excellence in standards.
Alex Giladi
bio
Alex Giladi is a Comcast fellow and an Emmy-winning technologist. He has been working on issues related to video content encoding and distribution since 2000. His current areas of interest are video encoding and adaptive streaming. He currently leads an advanced technologies group within Comcast. Prior to Comcast, he worked on various aspects video transport and video coding in InterDigital, Huawei, Vubiquity, Digital Fountain, and Harmonic. He has been a prolific contributor to the MPEG-DASH standard and served as an editor of several standards and amendments related to DASH, content security, and MPEG-2 Systems. He is the vice president of the DASH Industry Forum since 2019. He is the founder and co-organizer of the popular Mile-High Video annual conference series held in Denver, CO, since 2017. He holds an MSEE degree from Stanford University, Stanford, CA, and a BSc degree from Technion, Haifa, Israel. He is a senior member of the IEEE and holds more than 50 U.S. patents.
Keyword(s): Adaptive Bitrate Streaming, ABR, Common Media Client Data (CMCD), Common Media Server Data (CMSD), Content Delivery Network, DASH, HLS, SAND
Copyright: © 2023 SMPTE

Bibliographic Reference(s)

ISO.23009-5.2017 — International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC) 23009-5:2017, “Information Technology—Dynamic Adaptive Streaming Over HTTP (DASH)—Part 5: Server and Network Assisted DASH (SAND).” Accessed: Sept. 10, 2022. [Online]. Available: https://www.iso.org/standard/69079.html EXTERNAL
A. Bentaleb, M. Lim, M. N. Akcay, A. C. Begen, and R. Zimmermann, “Common Media Client Data (CMCD): Initial Findings,” ACM NOSSDAV, 2021, doi: 10.1145/3458306.3461444. EXTERNAL
Consumer Technology Association, “CTA-5004: Web Application Video Ecosystem–Common Media Client Data,” Sept. 2020. EXTERNAL
NUS-OzU, “CMSD-DASH.” Accessed: Sept. 10, 2022. [Online]. Available: https://github.com/NUStreaming/CMSD-DASH EXTERNAL
DASH-IF, “DASH Reference Client.” Accessed: Sept. 10, 2022. [Online]. Available: https://reference.dashif.org/dash.js/ EXTERNAL
S. Pham, M. Avelino, D. Silhavy, T.-S. An, and S. Arbanowski, “Standards-Based Streaming Analytics and Its Visualization,” ACM MMSys, 2021. EXTERNAL
M. Lim, M. N. Akcay, A. Bentaleb, A. C. Begen, and R. Zimmermann, “The Benefits of Server Hinting When DASHing or HLSing,” ACM MHV, 2022, doi: 10.1145/3510450.3517317. EXTERNAL
Consumer Technology Association, “CTA-5006: Web Application Video Ecosystem–Common Media Server Data,” Nov. 2022. EXTERNAL
A. C. Begen, “Manus Manum Lavat: Media Clients and Servers Cooperating With Common Media Client/Server Data,” ACM Appl. Netw. Res. Workshop (ANRW), 2021, doi: 10.1145/3472305.3472886. EXTERNAL
A. Bentaleb, B. Taani, A. C. Begen, C. Timmerer, and R. Zimmermann, “A Survey on Bitrate Adaptation Schemes for Streaming Media Over HTTP,” IEEE Commun. Surveys Tuts., 21(1):562–585, Firstquarter 2019, doi: 10.1109/ EXTERNAL
S. Akhshabi, L. Anantakrishnan, A. C. Begen, and C. Dovrolis, “What Happens When HTTP Adaptive Streaming Players Compete for Bandwidth?,” ACM NOSSDAV, 2012, doi: 10.1145/2229087.2229092. EXTERNAL
S. Akhshabi, L. Anantakrishnan, C. Dovrolis, and A. C. Begen, “Server-Based Traffic Shaping for Stabilizing Oscillating Adaptive Streaming Players,” ACM NOSSDAV, 2013, doi: 10.1145/2460782.2460786. EXTERNAL
A. C. Begen, A. Bentaleb, D. Silhavy, S. Pham, R. Zimmermann, and W. Law, “Road to Salvation: Streaming Clients and Content Delivery Networks Working Together,” IEEE Commun. Mag., 59(11):123–128, 2021, doi: 10.1109/MCOM.121.2100137. EXTERNAL
D. H. Lee, C. Dovrolis, and A. C. Begen, “Caching in HTTP Adaptive Streaming: Friend or Foe?,” ACM NOSSDAV, 2014, doi: 10.1145/2597176.2578270. EXTERNAL
NUS-OzU, “CMCD-DASH.” Accessed: Sept. 10, 2022. [Online]. Available: https://github.com/NUStreaming/CMCD-DASH EXTERNAL

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Ali C. Begen, Yasser Syed, and Alex Giladi; Use of Common Media Client and Server Data to Improve Streaming Playback Performance, SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal ( Volume: 132, Issue: 6, July 2023); SMPTE, 2023. Available at https://doi.org/10.5594/JMI.2023.3279467

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Ali C. Begen, Yasser Syed, and Alex Giladi; Use of Common Media Client and Server Data to Improve Streaming Playback Performance, SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal ( Volume: 132, Issue: 6, July 2023); SMPTE, 2023. Available at https://doi.org/10.5594/JMI.2023.3279467

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<span class="citation">Ali C. Begen, Yasser Syed, and Alex Giladi; <cite>Use of Common Media Client and Server Data to Improve Streaming Playback Performance</cite>, SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal ( Volume: 132, Issue: 6, July 2023); SMPTE, 2023. Available at <a href="https://doi.org/10.5594/JMI.2023.3279467" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://doi.org/10.5594/JMI.2023.3279467</a></span>

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Ali C. Begen, Yasser Syed, and Alex Giladi; Use of Common Media Client and Server Data to Improve Streaming Playback Performance, SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal ( Volume: 132, Issue: 6, July 2023); SMPTE, 2023
doi: 10.5594/JMI.2023.3279467
url: https://doi.org/10.5594/JMI.2023.3279467

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Ali C. Begen, Yasser Syed, and Alex Giladi; <cite id="bib-10-5594-jmi-2023-3279467">Use of Common Media Client and Server Data to Improve Streaming Playback Performance</cite>, SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal ( Volume: 132, Issue: 6, July 2023); SMPTE, 2023
<span class="doi">10.5594/JMI.2023.3279467</span>
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