How can video service providers control the quality of their service and secure a rational usage of their infrastructure ?
This white paper offers a solution with a very innovative approach to ABR video streaming!
Executive summary:
Adaptive bitrate (ABR) technology has been the enabler of multiscreen video and has largely contributed to the popularity of de-linearized modes of consumption (VOD, catch-up, start-over, etc.).
The original principles of ABR propose delivering several quality streams of the same content and leaving it up to the end-device to decide which version to use. Now, what could be seen at first as an advantage in terms of adaptability is gradually becoming a limitation as ABR traffic is soaring, pushed naturally by the increasing number of mobile devices and, even more dramatically, by its progressive adoption for linear channels on big screens in place of traditional broadcast.
In order for video service providers to control the quality of their service and to secure a rational usage of their infrastructure, this paper considers the option of having the network participate in the stream selection process and regulate the amount of bandwidth distributed to each connection individually.
Moreover, it details how server-side selection provides additional benefits, such as low-latency streaming and fair distribution of the available bandwidth between the devices of a same home network.
At the end of the day, using the S4Streaming approach will decrease transport network expenses and significantly improve the quality of experience (QoE) and loyalty of end-users.
