QoS provisioning by power control for video communication via satellite links

*Correspondence to: Ting Ma, School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. †E-mail: [email protected] SUMMARY Video transmissions over satellite links are sensitive to signal fades due to rain, especially in the tropics. We performed a video streaming experiment over a satellite link for 24 days distributed over one year to investigate the effects of rain fade. Based on the measurements, models for the relationships between rainfall rate, power level, packet loss, and video quality are proposed. Furthermore, for both uplink and downlink channel, an adaptive closed loop power control algorithm, with a Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller is designed. This is used for the mitigation of the rain-induced attenuation in order to guarantee a certain level of Quality of Service (QoS) and Quality of Experience (QoE). Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed power control solution and its ability to sustain video quality levels in spite of rain fades. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.