Live Streaming Metrics and Challenges

This assignment delves into the critical performance metrics that define the quality of live video and audio streaming. It examines factors such as low throughput, packet dropping, network errors, high latency, network jitters, and out-of-order delivery, explaining how these issues can degrade the user experience. The assignment emphasizes the importance of understanding these metrics for ensuring seamless and engaging live streaming experiences.

STREAMING LIVE AND INTERACTIVE AUDIO AND VIDEO.
[Student Name]
[Lecture Name]
Networked Application Management
[Date]

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Justification of live video and audio................................................................................................3
i. Computer /Laptop/tablet/phone........................................................................................3
ii. Camera and webcams.......................................................................................................4
iii. Audio speakers and microphones..................................................................................4
iv. Streaming Server...........................................................................................................4
v. Physical encoders:............................................................................................................4
vi. Encoding softwares:......................................................................................................4
vii. Required bandwidth speed............................................................................................5
viii. The live streaming video platform.................................................................................5
Middle ware used in live video and audio.......................................................................................5
Live Video And Audio Transmission Techniques..........................................................................7
Tools used in live video and audio..................................................................................................8
Protocols used in Live video and audio........................................................................................10
Performance metrics in live video and audio................................................................................13
Bibliography..................................................................................................................................15

Introduction .
The live Audio and Video in distributed Cloud Environment is the process where the
media like the videos and audios contents are transmitted via the internet as in compressed
forms and they get played immediately but they don’t get saved in the computer’s hard disks.
However during the live video streaming the people streaming that are streaming don’t
need to download the video files in order to play it ,this is achieved since the media get sent as
streams continuously and then get played as the media streams arrives the clients.
During the streaming process the users are able to do various operations which include
the pausing, rewinding forwarding like any downloaded file but the only difference is that the
content is received as the streaming live.
Justification of live video and audio
The live video and audio streaming is used in various purposes which includes the following:
 Enable the users to use the applications which are interactive which are like the videos
search personal play lists.
 Enables the monitoring of the contents being watched by some people and the duration
that get watched.
 There is efficiency usage of the internet bandwidth since only section of file being
transmitted gets watched.
 The creator of contents has various controls since the file is not stored and it get
discarded immediately it get watched.
The live videos and audio streaming requires various types of tools and equipments which
includes the following:
i. Computer /Laptop/tablet/phone
These are the gargets that are used on the clients side, however the most recommended is
the computer or a laptop, this is because of the high processing speed and thus there will be no
lagging of the streaming content and the camera speed will be kept up by the laptop speed.1
1 G. Coulouris, Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design (London:Addison Wesley,2016),25.

However the computer get internet bandwidth which is through the wire
connectivity which provides the highest speed of internet with high quality services.2
ii. Camera and webcams
This is another gadget that is used to capture the event that are being transmitted and thus
it is used in capturing of the live videos.
iii. Audio speakers and microphones.
There is the built in microphones which enables has low quality and they reduces
noise ,there could also be an external microphones .
However the speakers are also used to produce the sound to the clients and thus there is
more quality in the production of sound.
iv. Streaming Server
The server is used to stream the video live using the servers like the UStream and the
livestream and these servers allows the ease streaming of server signals.2
v. Physical encoders:
This is a box which is used to do plugging the camera and the microphones; however this
garget is connected to the internet to allow video and audio streaming.
For better quality it is not advisable to do connection though media like the Bluetooth and
the best connection is the wire connection where there is no sharing in the connections.
vi. Encoding softwares:
This is the software that is used for the purpose of encoding however it is
2 G. Coulouris, Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design (London:Addison Wesley,2016),36.

highly available from the internet for free then it is installed in the
computers.
This software requires one to possess a computer in order to be able to do streaming of
the video or events and then the microphones and cameras are connected to the computers being
used.
vii. Required bandwidth speed
The internet connectivity is a vital thing to be considered where there must be a strong internet bandwidth with high
speed which should have an average of not less than 2.6 MBps uploading speed .
viii. The live streaming video platform
This is a platform that will enable the sharing of the streamed video and audio over the
internet, the platform can be TV screen, a projector or any visual display device.
Middle ware used in live video and audio.
The live video and audio transmission is used to display the output to the clients where
the contents is viewed, however this is enabled by use of middleware applications which is
computerised application that offer services to video conference software applications which are
in operating systems and outside the operating systems3.
3
3 G. Coulouris, Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design (London:Addison Wesley,2016),56.

Some of the middle ware applications used for video and audio applications includes the
following:
i. web servers.
The above is an illustration of the web server this consist of computers that provides the web
pages to the requesting clients ,it has the IP addresses and the domains names.
ii. Application servers
The above is the setup of the application servers, however the web server is one component
that is located in the middle tier of the above server architecture ,this however gives the security
and also status of the maintenance to enable the accessibility of data and its persistence.
4
4 G. Coulouris, Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design (London:Addison Wesley,2016),25.

5
iii. Contents management systems.
This is another type of middleware or correction of various software applications that
maintains the database of the created digital media contents which is then transmitted through the
live video and audio streaming.6
iv. Games engines.
This is a middleware that is mad of various programs which includes the gamebryo and
renderware and they offer service in gaming including development and streaming games online
using the computers and phones .
v. Radio-frequency identification.
This is a middle ware program that essentially filters noise and reduces the redundancy in the
raw data waiting to be transmitted.
However this middle ware uses the electromagnetic fields to do identification and tracking
any tag in the contents transmitted or streamed through video or audio signals.
Live Video And Audio Transmission Techniques.
The video and audio transmission is done through various methods and mechanisms
which includes the following which helps in encoding and decoding of the signals:
i. BitTorrent based video block device.
This is a technique that give the clients a very clear view and users uses the video block
device (VBD) which is give a module that allow the communications between the clients and the
severs which are the content senders. In this case the blocks which are yet to be used are not
stored in the cache memory until it get used.
ii. Scalable videos coding
5 Pantos, R.P,HTTP Live Streaming draft-pantos-http-live-streaming-19(New
york:HarperCollins Publishers,2015),231.
6

This is a technique where the clouds servers acts like the extractors in SVC and this
enables a large number of clients to view the videos through streaming and thus gives
arrangement of content delivered to give best quality that is required by the clients.
iii. P2P Live Video Streaming Cloud
This is streaming technique that streams live from the cloud and in this case the clouds
server which is public is used in order to do construction of platforms which are scalable for
delivering of the videos and audios using the scalable video coding technologies and thus very
large number of clients is able to stream dynamically.
iv. Progressive Download
This is a technique that is used by clients using the mobile devices and thus the contents are
compressed data and this makes it easy for playing using the HTTP which downloads the
contents slowly and gradually.
v. HTTP Live Streaming
This is a technique that uses the HTTPs structures to do the streaming of the multimedia and
facilitates the communication using the appropriate protocols including the Hyper text transport
protocol (HTTP) and Live Streaming (HLS), this techniques is adopted by the devices like the
IOS IPODs and Iphones.
Tools used in live video and audio.
The live video and audio streaming has to use various tools which includes the following that
enables smooth and efficient transmission.
i. Open Broadcaster Software (OBS)
This is a freely available tool that is required to be configured a little before use ,it is
therefore a vital tool when it comes to transmission of live video streams to the clients.
ii. Wirecast
This is another tool that can be used to video transmission which is mainly used for live
streaming in the face book applications and also requires little setup although it is more useful
than the OBS. 7
7 Pantos, R.P,HTTP Live Streaming draft-pantos-http-live-streaming-19(New
york:HarperCollins Publishers,2015),310.
7Pantos, R.P,HTTP Live Streaming draft-pantos-http-live-streaming-19(New york:HarperCollins
Publishers,2015),250

However in this software the clients are able to do customisation to fit their display tastes
accordingly and thus showing uniqueness in the looks and its appearances.
iii. Face book Live
This is another tool that was launched by the facebook in year 2016 ,however it gives the
ability of broadcasting of video to large number of clients through the computers IOS devices
and even the mobile devices too.
iv. IBM Clouds Videos
This is a tool that was developed in year 2016 and offers the cloud videos services and thus
has ability of delivering the live video on demands contents to the clients.
v. Instagrams Live Videos.
This a another type of tool that is used by clients that posses the instagram accounts and thus
the follower and clients are able to do sharing of the videos and audios which is in real time and
live and the video is only viewable only when is live and when it is done it cannot be accessed
again in the instagram.
vi. YouTube Live
This is a tool that provides any videos type that had been recorded previously and then
uploaded ,this also provide features that enables live event viewing when one creates an account
and one view the videos in real times.
vii. Livestreaming
This is tool that gives the services to businesses owner that need live broadcasting of their
business this give best qualities and also is very easy to operate and use and thus boosts the
services offered to the customers. 7.
viii. Periscope Producers
This is a tool that is used by the twitter in order to broadcast live using the social media
websites and this enables the twitter to stream live videos through the computers ,and mobile
devices like android phones and IOS phones
ix. Twitch

This is a tool that is mainly meant for game players who like to broadcast their games and
also able to watching the other players games.8
x. Bambuser
This is a tool that enables the video sharing using the mobile devices ,this has a low level of
latency ,make it able to have live videos and it is amainly used by the various mobile users in
various platforms.
xi. YouNow
This is famous live videos streaming application and it is also used for chatting but it is
mainly used to do video broadcast .
xii. Tinychat
This is a tool that is mainly used for chatting and interaction and thus it is termed to be more
of video chatting and the clients are able to form their own videos chatting rooms.
Protocols used in Live video and audio
The live video and audio streaming uses various protocols depending on the uses and the
purpose which includes the following:
i. Resource ReSerVation Protocol (RSVP)
The RSVP is a protocol that controls the networks and this is by enabling the clients to do
requesting of the data flow8.
However this application is used by the programs where the router is used to do request of
the appropriate bandwidths in the path of transmission and thus the RSVP make the biggest
portion in the integrated service internet that end up providing the real times services in the
transmission processes.
8 C. Miller,MulticastNetworking and Applications(London:AddisonWesley,2016),256.

Below is a figure illustrating the layout of the RSVP protocol and its components.
.
ii. Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP)
This is a protocol that is based on the IP protocol in order to be supported to transmit data in
real times inform of videos and audios streaming.
This protocol caters for the reconstructing time, detecting of losses, maintenance of security
and identifying the contents.
However it mainly does multicasting of real time data and also for uncasts of the data which
is used for video transmission on demand or in cases of interactive services including
telephoning over the internet.
RTP is designed to work in conjunction with the auxiliary control protocol RTCP to get
feedback on quality of data transmission and information about participants in the on-going
session.9
Below is a simple illustration of the RTP protocol and the involved layers.
9 Wang .F, mtreebone: a hybrid tree/mesh overlay for application-layer live video
multicast(London: Springer US press,2016),215.

iii. Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP)
This is a protocol that is used to transmission of data across many networks in terms of
streams, this is to avoid the storage of data in file form in the network storage media.
This involves the streaming of the data packets between the servers and the clients which
involves the activities like playing, decompressing and receiving of the data packets.
Therefore this is a protocol that allows the delivering of the media which is streamed in a
controlled from via the IP networks and enables the pausing forwarding and reversal of the
media files or video clips.
iv. Hypertext protocol (HTTP)
This is a protocol that is used to do transmission of the video through the use of the video on
demand or even through live streaming process. 10
v. Real Time Messaging Protocol RTMP
This a protocol developed by the adobe company which supports the adobe flash player
plug-in ,this protocol is efficient in terms of encryption of data ,security and encapsulations.
Performance metrics in live video and audio.
The live video and audio streaming is determined by various factors and metrics which
includes the following factors that determines the quality of the services offered in the live
streaming services, below are some of the metrics of live video and audio streaming:
10

i. Low throughput:
The throughput is reduced since there may be a large number of users of the network and
thus the load vary and thus the bit rates end up being too low to enable the real times video
streaming .
ii. Dropping of packets
The data load if it get corrupted it end up being dropped by the routers or in case when the
data packet reaches the router and find the buffer memory is full and thus will result to
transmission delay.
iii. Network Errors
This is the case where the data packets get corrupted in case there is arising errors due to
noises or even interferences , this happens when the transmission of data packets is done through
the wireless networks or using the copper wire then it will require to be retransmitted again to the
receiver.
iv. High Latency
This is cases where the data packets is held in the transmission queues and thus taking too
long to arrive to the destinations. This can happen even if the packet happen to use a different
routes while there is congestions in the network and thus affects the live videos streaming as
well.11
v. Network Jitters.
The packet during streaming will take long this is due to delay as it get determined by the
number and spacing of the routing devices in the network and thus end up affecting the qualities
of the streamed audios and videos.12
vi. Out-of-order delivery
11 C. Miller,MulticastNetworking and Applications(London:AddisonWesley,2016),520.
12C. Miller,MulticastNetworking and Applications(London:AddisonWesley,2016),259.

This is a case where there are various packets that get routed in a certain network ,some of
the packets tends to take a different route and thus resulting to delays and therefore the packets
arrive the destinations at different times and orders and therefore the streamed video qualities
get affected by both the latencies and poor packets sequences.13
13

Bibliography
G. Coulouris, Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design .London:
Addison Wesley,2016.
-, Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design .London: Addison
Wesley,2016.
-, Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design. London: Addison
Wesley,2016.
-, Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design .London: Addison
Wesley,2016.
Pantos, R.P,HTTP Live Streaming draft-pantos-http-live-streaming-19.New York:
HarperCollins Publishers,2015.
-,HTTP Live Streaming draft-pantos-http-live-streaming-19.New York:
HarperCollins Publishers,2015.
-,HTTP Live Streaming draft-pantos-http-live-streaming-19.New York:
HarperCollins Publishers,2015.
C. Miller,MulticastNetworking and Applications. London: Addison
Wesley,2016.
Wang.F,mtreebone:a hybrid tree/mesh overlay for application-layer
live video multicast.London: Springer US press,2016.
C. Miller,MulticastNetworking and Applications.London:
Addison Wesley,2016.
-,MulticastNetworking and Applications. London:
AddisonWesley,2016.