Enhancement or Super-Resolution: Learning-based Adaptive Video Streaming with Client-Side Video Processing

Abstract: The rapid development of multimedia and communication technology has resulted in an urgent need for high-quality video streaming. However, robust video streaming under fluctuating network conditions and heterogeneous client computing capabilities remains a challenge. In this paper, we consider an enhancement-enabled video streaming network under a time-varying wireless network and limited computation capacity. "Enhancement" means that the client can improve the quality of the downloaded video segments via image processing modules. We aim to design a joint bitrate adaptation and client-side enhancement algorithm toward maximizing the quality of experience (QoE). We formulate the problem as a Markov decision process (MDP) and propose a deep reinforcement learning (DRL)-based framework, named ENAVS. As video streaming quality is mainly affected by video compression, we demonstrate that the video enhancement algorithm outperforms the super-resolution algorithm in terms of signal-to-noise ratio and frames per second, suggesting a better solution for client processing in video streaming. Ultimately, we implement ENAVS and demonstrate extensive testbed results under real-world bandwidth traces and videos. The simulation shows that ENAVS is capable of delivering 5%-14% more QoE under the same bandwidth and computing power conditions as conventional ABR streaming.