Adaptive traffic smoothing for live VER MPEG video service

In this paper, we propose an online source traffic smoothing algorithm, that can be effectively used in live video applications such as visual lectures or television news. For a practical implementation, firstly, we describe the constraints imposed by the delay bound at the sender side, and by the sender/receiver buffer sizes. Then, by using these constraints, the proposed algorithm is designed in such a dynamic way as to smooth maximally the transmission rate. Through experimental results, it is shown that the proposed scheme is effective in reducing the peak rate, temporal variations, and effective bandwidth of a given video stream. Particularly, it is noted that the proposed algorithm can be used in some applications where overall buffer sizes are finite or asymmetrically located. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.