Youtube Video Packet Loss & Retransmission

Abstract

A video hosting service allows individuals to upload video content to share or place on a website. Users generally will upload via the hosting service's website, mobile or desktop applications or APIs. The type of video content uploaded can be anything from short video clips all the way to full length movies. The video host will then store the video on its server, and show the individual different types of embed codes or links to allow others to view this video. The website, mainly used as the video hosting website, is usually called the video sharing website. Video sharing services like YouTube have become very popular which consequently results in a drastic shift of the Internet traffic statistic. YouTube is used as concrete example and case study for video delivery over the Internet, since it is not only the most popular online video platform, but also generates a large share of traffic on today’s Internet. When transmitting video con-tent over packet based networks, stringent quality of service (QoS) constraints must be met in order to provide the com-parable level of quality to a traditional broadcast television. However, the packet transmission is influenced by delays and losses of data packets which can have devastating influence on the perceived quality of the video. Therefore, we conducted an experimental evaluation of HTTP based video transmission focusing on how they react to packet delay and loss. Through this analysis we investigated how long video playback is stalled and how often re-buffering events take place. Our analysis re-vealed threshold levels for the packet delay, packet losses and network throughput which should not be exceeded in order to preserve smooth video transmission.