Streaming in basic mobile networks

A comprehensive study and a large set of simulation tests were carried out to analyze the characteristics of packet-switched networks that cannot guarantee the capacity. In this dissertation, such networks are referred to as non-bitrate-guaranteed mobile networks . This study revealed several key problems including: data transfer gaps caused by cell reselection, bandwidth fluctuation caused by either signal quality or cell load, streaming client buffer underflow and limited capability of the streaming client to report these problems to the streaming server. Novel solutions to these problems are proposed in this thesis. In addition to these service issues, this thesis evaluated subjective quality thresholds of lip synchronization and video. It is equally important, compared to technical improvements, to understand whether the improvement give subjective benefits. For example, increased bitrate improves the video/audio quality of streaming service, but the device hardware may become limiting factor that improvements are no longer noticed.