The proliferation of wireless multi-hop communication infrastructures in office or residential environments depends on their ability to support a variety of emerging applications requiring real-time video transmission between stations located across the network. We propose an integrated cross-layer optimization algorithm aimed at maximizing the decoded video quality of delay-constrained streaming in a multi-hop wireless mesh network that supports quality-of-service (QoS). The key principle of our algorithm lays in the synergistic optimization of different control parameters at each node of the multi-hop network, across the protocol layers - application, network, medium access control (MAC) and physical (PHY) layers, as well as end-to-end, across the various nodes. To drive this optimization, we assume an overlay network infrastructure, which is able to convey information on the conditions of each link. Various scenarios that perform the integrated optimization using different levels (“horizons”) of information about the network status are examined. The differences between several optimization scenarios in terms of decoded video quality and required streaming complexity are quantified. Our results demonstrate the merits and the need for cross-layer optimization in order to provide an efficient solution for real-time video transmission using existing protocols and infrastructures. In addition, they provide important insights for future protocol and system design targeted at enhanced video streaming support across wireless mesh networks.

Introduction

Wireless mesh networks are built based on a mixture of fixed and mobile nodes interconnected via wireless links to form a multi-hop ad-hoc network.