Rateless scalable video coding for overlay multisource streaming in MANETs

Recent advances in forward error correction and scalable video coding enable new approaches for robust, distributed streaming in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs). This paper presents an approach for distribution of real time video by uncoordinated peer-to-peer relay or source nodes in an overlay network on top of a MANET. The approach proposed here allows for distributed, rate-distortion optimized transmission-rate allocation for competing scalable video streams at relay nodes in the overlay network. The approach has the desirable feature of path/source diversity that can be used for enhancing reliability in connectivity to serving nodes and/or attaining a higher throughput. The distributed approach reduces signaling overhead as well as avoiding scalability issues that come with centralized processing in MANETs. Results show a significant performance gain over both single-server systems and previously proposed multi-source systems. 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.