The emergence of a number of network communication facilities such as Network Function Virtualization (NFV), Software Defined Networking (SDN), the Internet of Things (IoT), Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), and in-network packet processing, holds a potential to meet the low latency, high precision requirements of various future multimedia applications. However, this raises the corresponding issues of how all of these elements can be used together in future networking environments, including newly developed protocols and techniques. This paper describes the architecture of an end-to-end video streaming platform for video surveillance, consisting of a UAV network domain, an edge server implementing in-network packet trimming operations with the use of Big Packet Protocol (BPP), utilization of Scalable Video Coding (SVC) and multiple video clients which connect to a network managed by an SDN controller. A Virtualized Edge Function at the drone edge utilizes SVC and in communication with the Drone Control Unit to manage the transmitted video quality. Experimental results show the potential that future multimedia applications can achieve the required high precision with the use of future network components and the consideration of their interactions.

Big Packet Protocol (BPP), which is part of New IP, was designed to transfer packets for future networking applications, and aims to overcome obstacles within current networks for high precision services. One of the most important advantages of New IP is that it allows changes to packets during transmission. The strategy of BPP is to reduce the packet size by eliminating specific chunks, cutting out segments from the transferred video, rather than dropping or retransmitting packets. This provides an effective mechanism to enhance the performance of video streaming applications, by obtaining continuous delivery and minimum guaranteed quality at the receiver. In order to make video transmission over BPP effective, we need to select a video codec that can do multiple encodings for the same region, such as scalable video coding (SVC). To support such functionality, we have augmented the BPP packet structure in order to transfer video data. This paper describes the use of BPP for carrying video from servers to clients, and defines the packet structure for this purpose, plus the extensions needed to support SVC encoded video. To evaluate the proposed approach, we use SDN to facilitate BPP operations, with results showing a successful implementation of a system using these combined techniques.

This paper describes the use of the Big Packet Protocol (BPP) for carrying video from servers to clients, and how SDN controllers can effectively manage the flow-rate and QoE, based on the available bandwidth. BPP relies on meta-data being injected into packets in order to provide information for network nodes on how to process those packets. Given specific commands, the network node can drop parts of the payload, called chunks in BPP. When using BPP, the strategy is not to drop whole packets, but to reduce the packet size be eliminating specific chunks. The approach allows for reducing the load on the network, when there is a limited bandwidth, by having a flow of packets regularly arriving at the receiver, so there is continuous delivery and minimum guaranteed quality. To make video transmission over BPP effective, a video encoder and decoder that can do multiple encodings for the same region is selected–namely scalable video coding (SVC). The results show the successful implementation of a system using these combined techniques.