Video over Software-Defined Networking (VSDN)

Abstract

Supporting end-to-end quality of service (QoS) for real-time interactive video applications, such as video conferencing and distance learning, requires the network to select an optimum path from among multiple paths. Multiple network paths may be available between the source and the destination, but finding an alternative path is difficult because of the high coupling and complex design of the network. Network architectures such as Integrated Services (IntServ) install the path selected by the routing protocol, which may not deliver best-case performance. Furthermore, it is an arduous task for the video application developer to request service from IntServ. We provide three contributions to the literature on providing end-to-end QoS for real-time interactive video applications. First, we present Video over Software-Defined Networking (VSDN), a network architecture that selects the optimum path using a network-wide view. Second, we describe the VSDN protocol that is used by the developer to request QoS from the network. Finally, we present the results of implementing a VSDN prototype and evaluate the behavior of VSDN using message complexity, network throughput, network delay, and network jitter. The message complexity of VSDN is linear.