Evaluation of Wireless High Definition Video Transmission Using H.264 over WLANs

Abstract

Many challenges and limitations stand in the way of streaming high resolution video content over a wireless network. A shift towards the 60-GHz band is taking place in order to accommodate for current High Definition streaming demands. However, today’s Wi-Fi networks are able to provide the necessary bandwidth with the help of compression. In this paper we evaluate the effectiveness of streaming video over wireless LANs using the H.264 codec. Our study shows that streaming HD content wirelessly over 802.11n is a viable option. However, perceptual quality of video is affected by the amount of background traffic and the presence of interfering nodes, i.e., hidden nodes.