NARS: Network bandwidth adaptive scalable real-time streaming for smart ubiquitous middleware

In ubiquitous environments, the exchange of different types of real-time video data can be extremely useful under various circumstances, particularly during disasters. For instance, in the wake of a catastrophe, it would be extremely important to assure real-time transmission of video data of escape routes, nearby regions of safety, and the locations of survivors. To assure real-time transmission of video, it is necessary to ensure stable bandwidth streaming and to minimize data loss. In most cases, real-time streaming is more sensitive to delays between frames rather than to errors that affect the quality of one frame. One possible approach for ensuring low-delay, real-time streaming is to control the quantization parameter value according to network channel conditions. In this paper, we describe such an approach for a continuous real-time streaming system for smart ubiquitous middleware (SmartUM), called network bandwidth adaptive scalable real-time video streaming (NARS). NARS is an integrated video data management system for the ubiquitous-city environment. It ensures continuity of real-time video streaming as well as scalability of transmission by supporting various user devices. This system can be applied to various ubiquitous systems.