Dynamic rate-control method for real-time video streaming over the Internet

This paper proposes a dynamic bit rate control method for real-time video streaming over the Internet. It is based on the feedback mechanism using RTCP(RTP control protocol) which provides network congestion parameters such as inter-arrival jitter, fraction lost, and round trip time by SR (Sender Report)/RR( Receiver Report). The proposed method firstly detects network congestion, then the network state is categorized into four congestion levels by analyzing the network congestion parameters such as jitter and packet loss derived from RR packets arriving periodically, then the coding bit rate is determined according to the current congestion level. The proposed dynamic bit rate control mechanism has also been implemented in the MPEG-4 video transmission system. The experimental results show that the proposed method can successfully suppress the packet loss and control the coding bit rate appropriately even for a congested network which does not guarantee QoS such as bandwidth resources and/or maximum delay.