University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Science Science Research & Publications 2019-04-25 iStream: A Research Platform for Video Streaming Stelter, Kaylee Stelter, K. (2019). iStream: A Research Platform for Video Streaming. 1-10. http://hdl.handle.net/1880/110276 bachelor thesis https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 Unless otherwise indicated, this material is protected by copyright and has been made available with authorization from the copyright owner. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca iStream: A Research Platform for Video Streaming Kaylee Stelter, Mea Wang Department of Computer Science University of Calgary fkaylee.stelter, [email protected] Abstract video quality and compression ratios [28]. The multitude The ever-rising demand and popularity of video stream- of platforms which offer video streaming content also ing technologies combined with the broadening and in- presents considerable variations in network quality (e.g., creasing prevalence of related research has developed a cellular, Wi-Fi, Ethernet, or SDN networks, or any com- significant need for a highly flexible, scalable, and practi- bination thereof). Alongside end-to-end streaming pro- cal platform on which to test new research ideas. iStream, tocols, such as Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP a video streaming research platform, was carefully de- (DASH), the end-user experience is concluded with video signed to meet the needs of researchers, reduce redundant playback on the client-side. Video players take an ar- development time, and provide immediate visual feed- ray of forms dependent on supported platforms, video file back to aid in research testing. The platform provides a types, and content characteristics. unique solution with its modular design and integration of Existing and ongoing research in this area has been fo- a myriad of essential video streaming components. These cused on individual video-streaming components. Video components include a video server with a curated video encoding has seen development of codec technologies dataset, network emulation capable of generalised, end- such as H.265/HEVC, which was developed to meet the to-end network characterisations, and side-by-side video ever-increasing demands for high-quality online video playback and statistical output via an intuitive user in- streaming and services [4]. Innovations in wireless terface. With its completion, iStream will provide an effi- technologies such as Worldwide Interoperability for Mi- cient, practical, and impactful addition to video streaming crowave Access (WiMAX), Long Term Evolution (LTE), research. and fourth-generation (4G) networks seek to provide sig- nificant improvements to data rates and quality of service Key words: Video streaming, network emulation, network [13]. The end-to-end streaming protocol DASH has seen simulation, research testbed. numerous innovative proposals in areas such as parallel 1 Introduction HTTP [3], variable segment duration [10], and rate adap- tation [12]. Video players such as VLC media player [25] 1.1 Motivation and Youtube HTML5 Video Player [29] undergo regular Video streaming traffic is projected to constitute more updates. than 80% of Internet traffic by 2022 [5]. A typical stream- This divided approach lacks the consistency, flexibil- ing system involves video encoding and storage by con- ity, and reusability that a more inclusive approach offers. tent providers, network quality of service (QoS) provi- Consistency between testing of research ideas provides sioning by Internet Service Providers (ISPs), content de- valuable comparability analyses and increased assurance livery (i.e., end-to-end streaming protocol), and video of improvements between differing tests. The redun- playback on the client-side. Video encoding is a di- dancy of repeated development of specialised research verse process largely dependent on the needs of content platforms between tests, researchers, and organisations providers and end-users, restrictions imposed by ISPs, could be drastically reduced through use of a more en- as well as hardware and network capacities. For video compassing platform offering a broad set of features. streaming content, encoding may be done offline or on- line; furthermore, online encoding (i.e., live encoding) 1.2 Approach provides additional challenges for video-encoding as the To address the identified need for a comprehensive ap- encoder must be powerful and efficient enough to keep proach to video streaming research, iStream - a video up with a constant stream of video data while maintain- streaming research platform which features the afore- ing desirable performance [28]. As well, a variety of mentioned components of a typical streaming system - video codecs exist with varying characteristics related to has been developed. More specifically, iStream consists of a video dataset, a video server, a network emulation mer research project, significant integration coding and module, a DASH-capable video player, and a highly- modification of the module was required for integration configurable front-end. The video dataset was compiled into iStream. Further detailed explanations of the above- to include a diverse set of video characteristics, namely, mentioned system components can be found in Section 3, resolution, bitrate, etc. For the end-to-end streaming pro- Methodology. tocol (i.e., video transfer), the integrated video player is compatible with a wide-array of formats, including the 2 Related Work industry-standard MPEG-DASH. For the video server, a Network simulation and emulation are key components locally-hosted Apache server was used. The network em- of the iStream platform. Thus, the components of our ulation module is able to emulate varying end-to-end net- system rely on the network module for communication work conditions (namely, bandwidth and delay) both over and integration with other modules. The accurate and time and across network types (e.g., cellular, Wi-Fi, Eth- scalable simulation and emulation of varying network ernet, etc.). Finally, for the DASH-capable video player characteristics is integral to the network module and over- and interface, VLC Player was embedded into a Python all system functionality. A general network characteri- GUI application. sation must be achievable; thus, the accurate represen- The modular design of iStream enables researchers to tation of differing network types (i.e., mobile networks, swap implementations of different components. For ex- WiFi networks, etc.) should be possible through alter- ample, the current simple QoS network emulation mod- ation of the imitation network’s parameters. A review ule, coined DummyNet, can be swapped with alternative of previous work related to network simulation and net- implementations to allow for emulation of more complex work emulation will be explored, with a focus on the rele- network topologies (i.e., a custom a Mininet [11] imple- vancy of these works to the iStream platform. In addition, mentation would allow for SDN-technologies and node- there has been some exploration into creating testbeds level network characterisations to be integrated into the or frameworks for adaptive video streaming, and these platform). Additionally, the video player and video server works will also be highlighted. modules are completely interchangeable with custom- 2.1 Network Simulation developed modules or through the integration of existing open-source solutions. The DummyNet network emula- There have been several solutions which attempt to ad- tion module also provides the ability to manage many dress the need for scalable network simulation. Modeling concurrent connections on a single-threaded program, and Tools for Network Simulation by Wehrle et. al [27], thus increasing the scalability of the iStream platform. contains a thorough examination of several well-known The video player module can support a myriad of video network simulators and simulation tools. Among these formats. Thus, different codec families, formats, and are OMNet++[16] and NS-3[15]. OMNeT++ itself is not quality levels are supported. With iStream, researchers a network simulator, but rather, provides a modular and and developers of video streaming systems can quickly extensible C++ library and framework which allows for develop and verify research ideas. The platform can also the development of network simulators with node-level facilitate the analysis of how different components of the network characterisations [27]. Wehrle et. al assert that system influence each other. OMNeT++’s highly generalised design has allowed it to be used in a wide variety of successful applications, many 1.3 Contributions of which are network simulations [27]. They make an iStream, through its modular and extensible design, pro- interesting and relevant note that OMNeT++’s real-time vides a solid foundational platform for video streaming event scheduler can be augmented to allow for captured research. The design and implementation of the plat- packets from real network devices to be inserted into a form’s fundamental infrastructure was the focus of this simulation [27]. The breadth and complexity of the tools, project. This includes the design, development, and test- in addition to the abundance