Variable FEC Decoding Delay and Playout Slowdown Method for Low Start Delay and Fast Channel Change for Video Streaming in DVB-SH Mobile Broadcast Systems

Video consumption is becoming a part of our daily life. Nielsen reports that U.S. broadcast television (TV) viewership in 2011 reached 158 hours 47 minutes a month while mobile viewership increased 20 percent over one year with video consumption of 4 hours 20 minutes a month in first quarter 2011 [14]. Video services delivery including video streaming will soon represent the majority of Internet traffic. In addition, video on demand or live TV services on mobile devices such as smartphones are becoming key services in wireless networks. However, media streaming over the Internet or over Internet Protocol (IP) packet-based wireless networks is sensitive to packet loss which impacts the quality of experience for the end user. Indeed, packet loss can cause errors or even interruption in video playout. This problem is even more drastic for media streaming over mobile broadcast communication systems such as in digital video broadcasting satellite services to handhelds (DVB-SH) [8]. In DVBSH, deep signal fading events over the land-mobile satellite channel can cause bursts of packet loss of lengthy duration. In order to recover from this loss, forward error correction (FEC) techniques can be used when, for example, retransmission is not possible because of the broadcast system, e.g., 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), (Enhanced) Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Service ((e)MBMS), Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld (DVB-H)/Satellite Services to Handhelds (SH)/Next-Generation Handheld (NGH).