Dual Pricing Optimization for Live Video Streaming in Mobile Edge Computing With Joint User Association and Resource Management

Mobile live video streaming is expected to become mainstream in the fifth generation (5G) mobile networks. To boost the Quality of Experience (QoE) of streaming services, the integration of Scalable Video Coding (SVC) with Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) becomes a natural candidate due to its scalability and the reliable transmission supports for real-time interactions. However, it still takes efforts to integrate MEC into video streaming services to exploit its full potentials. We find that the efficiency of the MEC-enabled cellular system can be significantly improved when the requests of users can be redirected to proper MEC servers through optimal user associations. In light of this observation, we jointly address the caching placement, video quality decision, and user association problem in the live video streaming service. Since the proposed nonlinear integer optimization problem is NP-hard, we first develop a two-step approach from a Lagrangian optimization under the dual pricing specification. Further, to have a computation-efficient solution and less performance loss, we provide a one-step Lagrangian dual pricing algorithm by the convex transformation of non-convex constraints. The simulations show that the service quality of live video streaming can be remarkably enhanced by the proposed algorithms in the MEC-enabled cellular system.

Automated summary

Mobile live video streaming is expected to become mainstream in 5G networks. Integrating Scalable Video Coding (SVC) with Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) can enhance the Quality of Experience (QoE) of streaming services. Efforts are needed to fully exploit the potentials of MEC in video streaming services. Redirecting user requests to proper MEC servers through optimal user associations can significantly improve the efficiency of MEC-enabled cellular systems. We propose algorithms to address caching placement, video quality decision, and user association problems, resulting in remarkable enhancement of live video streaming service quality in MEC-enabled cellular systems.