(An) efficient MAC layer packet fragmentation scheme with priority queuing for real-time video streaming

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel priority-aware fragmentation extension to high throughput WLANs such as IEEE 802.11n for efficient streaming of H264/AVC encoded videos. Unlike existing fragmentation schemes, the proposed scheme fragments IP packets based on video packet priority and MPEG-2 TS characteristics, where the original IP packet is fragmented into smaller IP packets containing fewer TS packets and prioritizes individual TS packets, allocated to an appropriate queue. The proposed scheme is evaluated on a testbed with various network congestion levels and channel conditions. The results show that it can achieve higher video streaming PSNR than the existing schemes as network congestion level increases and channel condition gets bad.