LTE DASH Standard Promises Perfect Mobile Streaming Video Soon
Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich-Hertz-Institut HHI in Berlin are working on optimizing data managers with DASH, this soon allowing LTE to bring citizens across the earth perfect streaming video. Streaming video will no longer judder or stop entirely, but will instead rise or lower in picture quality as the device's signal gains or loses strength. Until now, RRMs or Radio Resource Managers worked well to provide the amount of data a user needed at any single moment, but because videos are "beyond the grasp" of the current standard, there's no telling how high quality a stream might be.
What these HHI researchers are doing is working with DASH, or Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP. This standard works with the LTE standard as it's quickly replacing UMTS for mobile use around the Earth and will have videos and images made available in various qualities at the same time. Different file sizes will then be available depending on how far away from a strong signal the user is, transmitting stations and the mobile device automatically checking for reception and volume of traffic on the network to choose the best version of the media in question.
Poor reception or a massively overloaded network will result in a diminished quality image or video but judders will be taken out entirely. As connection quality improves, so too does the quality of the media in real-time. Thomas Wirth, Group Manager at HHI noted the following:
"With our mechanism, resources can be optimally distributed, and hence saved. The saved resources can then be allocated to others. This means we can increase the number of users that can be serviced." – Wirth
In other words, this is great for everybody, including the carriers that distribute the data in the first place. These HHI researchers have already completed a prototype of the brand new Radio Resource Manager and will hopefully be delivering to groups worldwide soon. How would you like a perfect stream of your cat doing a dance in a video you'd usually not be able to view in the Grand Canyon? This is a reality soon!
[via Frauenhoffer]