An unequal error protection mechanism for video streaming over IEEE 802.11e WLANs

A Cross-Layer Mapping Unequal Error Protection (CLM-UEP) mechanism is proposed for video streaming over IEEE 802.11e wireless networks. In the proposed approach, the transmitted video frames are assigned a different number of redundant packets in accordance with their video coding significance. An adaptive cross-layer mapping algorithm is then applied in the Media Access Control (MAC) layer to map the video and redundant packets to appropriate Access Category (AC) queues based on their coding significance and the network load. The numerical results show that the UEP mechanism provides an effective protection against wireless transmission losses. Moreover, the CLM algorithm maximizes the utilization efficiency of the AC queues and minimizes network congestion. As a result, a significant improvement is obtained in both the Playable Frame Ratio (PFR) and the peak signal-to-noise ratio of the transmitted video.