Trading-off Compression, Energy Efficiency, and QoE in Wireless Networks

Abstract

While throughput of wireless networks is improving rapidly during recent years, handheld devices are becoming more and more powerful and small. These features made multimedia streaming a favorite application of mobile smart devices. However, their lifetime highly depends on their battery powers which is not growing at he same pace of communication technologies. That is why, finding a solution to optimize energy consumption while keeping quality at the best possible level in multimedia applications is of high importance. This work qualitatively and quantitatively describes the trade-off between the total power required for communication (operation of the service, encoding and transmission), compression ratio of different audio and video codecs, and obtained quality from the network in wireless environment. The main aim of this project is to investigate the potential of implementing a system that minimizes power consumption while maintaining the best possible QoE. Possibility of designing a system that is capable of adjusting its parameters based on the battery level of device and the desired QoE would also be examined. Appropriate modification of parameters in multimedia application management system enables service providers to choose the most optimized algorithm in different conditions. Results of the project will provide unifi ed solution for joint performance and energy optimization of media applications running over wireless channels. A real-time system responsible for dynamic optimization of energy and QoE metrics can be developed in future studies.