Stallion: video adaptation algorithm for low-latency video streaming

Craig Gutterman, Brayn Fridman, Trey Gilliland, Yusheng Hu, Gil Zussman

Abstract: As video traffic continues to dominate the Internet, interest in near-second low-latency streaming has increased. Existing low-latency streaming platforms rely on using tens of seconds of video in the buffer to offer a seamless experience. Striving for near-second latency requires the receiver to make quick decisions regarding the download bitrate and the playback speed. To cope with the challenges, we design a new adaptive bitrate (ABR) scheme, Stallion, for STAndard Low-LAtency vIdeo cONtrol. Stallion uses a sliding window to measure the mean and standard deviation of both the bandwidth and latency. We evaluate Stallion and compare it to the standard DASH DYNAMIC algorithm over a variety of networking conditions. Stallion shows 1.8x increase in bitrate, and 4.3x reduction in the number of stalls.