Wireless Internet Center for Advanced Technology (WICAT) Proposal #1127960
This proposal seeks funding for the Wireless Internet Center for Advanced Technology (WICAT) sites at the Polytechnic Institute of NYU (lead), Auburn University, the University of Virginia, and the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Funding Requests for Fundamental Research are authorized by an NSF approved solicitation, NSF 10-601. The solicitation invites I/UCRCs to submit proposals for support of industry-defined fundamental research.
Increasing demand for video services on handheld and other wireless devices has made efficient exchange of video data using wireless devices a necessity. However the continual changes in user demand, network traffic and hardware of the wireless environment pose significant research challenges to achieving this goal. The proposed research seeks to address these challenges via a three pronged effort to explore wireless technologies able to adapt to changing communication system states. A test bed environment for the conduct of the proposed work that will provide system surveillance and cloud computing infrastructure will be provided by Cisco Systems.
Efficient and seamless use of video on wireless platforms in the emerging cloud computing environment will have major economic impact in virtually all economic sectors. Ubiquitous implementation and widespread adoption of these services will also create societal impact through the degree of communication it will enable. The proposed work has the potential to inform and define approaches to achieving this video content integration. The work has the potential to strengthen collaborative ties and link resources among the four participating center sites to further both research and education in this critical area.
With the advent of the smart phone and other mobile devices, an increasing number of applications have migrated from the desktop to such devices. The most challenging new mobile application to support is video, since it needs a more or less fixed bandwidth to support a constant quality for the viewer, yet wireless channels are notoriously variable in the bandwidth they deliver. This variability is a result of the variation in distance from the transmitting base station to the mobile device, and also due to shadowing as a result of obstructions and other effects. This work studies, in a quantitative manner, the relationship between the video components: spatial, temporal, and pixel resolution, and the perceived, subjective quality of video. This was done by varying each component individually while keeping the other two constant. This quantitative model, in turn, allows a video encoder and decoder to adapt to the measured instantaneous channel bandwidth, and to deliver, by adjusting the parameters associated with these three components, the best quality video that can be delivered given the bandwidth constraint. The broader impact of this work is that it will help further the ability to deliver high quality video applications in wireless networks such as cellular and WiFi. This work has already attracted the interest of our industry partners.
