Streamloading

About

Background and Technology Available bandwidth over mobile networks has increased substantially in recent years but the demand for data over these networks has grown even more quickly. This is largely due to the increased viewing of video content on mobile devices. Cisco predicts cellular data traffic will grow by over eight times in the next four years, with more than two-thirds of it consisting of mobile video. Despite recent advances in the delivery of content, streaming still has certain inherent limitations and downloading content can be costly to the end user and raise copyright concerns. HD video content is made up of a base layer and enhancement layers. The enhancement layers allow for the extraordinary definition of HD content, but in the absence of base layer data any amount of enhancement layer data is useless. NYU’s Streamloading protocol allows for enhancement layers to be aggressively downloaded ahead of time and then seamlessly reintegrated with the base layer when the content is being streamed.   Advantages of Streamloading Network providers can avoid the crunch associated with peak time demand for video content. Streamloading could eliminate as much as much as 75% of peak bandwidth demand Cost savings to viewer since fewer Mbps are required Since base layer is streamed, viewing content is legally streamed rather than downloaded. Predictive analysis of viewing behavior is already a well-developed field and can be applied to complement Streamloading’s function.