Proxy-assisted interactive-video services over networks with large delays

While emerging broadband access technologies such as DSL and cable are making multimedia services feasible and economically attractive for end-users, there still exist several hurdles in terms of service sustainability and reliability. Unfortunately, without the desired quality-of-service (QoS) support, tackling these hurdles with traditional solutions is an insuperably difficult task. Yet, novel designs that are proven to be useful in various scenarios may easily fail when the underlying network experiences severe packet loss or delay. Such circumstances are unavoidable in today's best-effort Internet and will likely prevail in the near future as well. A promising approach in satisfying the stringent requirements of delay-intolerant video applications is to benefit from configurable proxies. In this study, we introduce a versatile proxy-based solution to enhance the performance of such applications running over networks with large delays. We first propose a methodology that accurately identifies lost packets in real time. This methodology is then used by the proxy and end-users to improve the error-control/protection capability of the video applications. By Internet experiments between the US and Europe, we demonstrate the effectiveness and potential benefits of the proposed approach.