Cooperative mobile video transmission for traffic surveillance in smart cities

Cooperation transmission among mobile devices is critical for video streaming systems. Conventional systems usually require huge storage space and bandwidth, subsequently causing a bottleneck for the development of streaming systems. To resolve such problems, this study proposes a cooperative mechanism for mobiles that can make full use of local storage space and uploading bandwidth to relieve the computational load for streaming servers. Firstly, a statistical distribution of the life cycle of devices is dynamically established based on the analysis of random arrival and departure of mobile users. Secondly, an adaptive sliding-window technology based on Scalable Video Coding (SVC) is proposed in this study to change the size of windows in real time. Thirdly, an adaptive streaming solution is introduced in the OPNET environment, which cooperatively integrates the strategies of overlay formation, quality adaptation, and data scheduling. Simulation results showed that the proposed mechanism saved power consumption of devices and ensured the video quality for networks with limited resources.