Home // International Journal On Advances in Telecommunications, volume 10, numbers 3 and 4, 2017 // View article

Immersive Video Services at the Edge: an Energy-Aware Approach

Authors:
Pietro Paglierani
Claudio Meani
Antonino Albanese
Paolo Secondo Crosta

Keywords: NFV; MEC; 5G; HW acceleration; GPU; Video transcoding

Abstract:
To respond to the users’ demand for immersive and personalized media services, the 5G and the Multi-access Edge Computing initiatives are proposing novel network architectures. In this context, we present the Video Transcoding Unit (VTU) system, which exploiting the Cloud Enable Radio Access Network proposed by the EU 5G-PPP Sesame project, brings immersive video functionalities to the edge of networks, thus greatly improving User Experience with mobile terminals. A use case is discussed, in which the VTU is deployed in a Stadium or in a large public venue during a Crowded Event, to offer Immersive Video Services. In the proposed architecture, the VTU video processing component can be implemented as a Software-only Virtual Network Function running on different Hardware platforms (X86 or ARM architectures), eventually accelerated by a Graphics Processing Unit. Specific tests are described and discussed and specific Key Performance Indicators are introduced, showing the benefits of the Hardware-accelerated implementation, both in terms of computing performance and of energy efficiency. We believe that the proposed VTU framework significantly advances the state of the art in the provision of video services to the mobile users.

Pages: 145 to 154

Copyright: Copyright (c) to authors, 2017. Used with permission.

Publication date: December 31, 2017

Published in: journal

ISSN: 1942-2601