FriSBE: adaptive bit rate streaming of immersive tiled video

PubDate: June 2020

Teams: Nokia Technologies

Writers: Saba Ahsan；Ari Hourunranta；Igor D. D. Curcio；Emre Aksu

PDF: FriSBE: adaptive bit rate streaming of immersive tiled video

Abstract

DASH streaming for 360-degree content is gaining more traction in research and commercial areas. The usefulness of H.265/HEVC Motion Constrained Tile Sets (MCTS) and viewport-dependent streaming is recognized. Streaming high quality tiles for the viewport and lower quality tiles in the surrounding area provide considerable bandwidth saving. However, required bit rate estimation is difficult for a changing viewport with variable tiles, prompting research in development of new ABR algorithms. In this paper, we present Full Sphere Bit rate Estimation (FriSBE), an Adaptive Bit Rate (ABR) technique for tiled omnidirectional content that reuses existing ABR algorithms developed for 2D video. We implemented FriSBE in an OMAF-based DASH player and found that it is able to adapt to both head motion and changing network conditions with minimal stalls. Our experiments showed no stall events for stable conditions with or without head motion, and on average 1s stall duration for varying network conditions when bandwidth was sufficient for at least the lowest quality video, despite a short 3 second buffer.