Objective video transmission quality measurement method in a peer-to-peer network

For video streaming to a wide audience, peer-to-peer networks at the application level of the OSI model are increasingly used, which reduce the load on the source server due to the fact that subscriber hosts provide not only receiving a video stream, but also its relaying to other hosts. Accidental disconnection of hosts from the network leads to temporary disruptions in transmission routes, which can lead to significant losses of transmitted data fragments and cause loss of video frames. Known methods for measuring the objective quality of video transmission are used to assess the loss of video quality due to its compression and do not take into account the random loss of video frames during transmission over communication channels. Loss of video frames leads to the fact that the reference and transmitted video may be shifted relative to each other by a certain number of video frames. In this case, the measured values of the metrics of the objective quality of video transmission can significantly exceed the true values, which leads to measurement errors. The study proposes a method for measuring the objective video transmission quality, which takes into account the loss of video frames during transmission in a peer-to-peer network based on achieving a match between the original and transmitted video frames. The method is based on the fact that in order to achieve the true values of the metrics evaluating the video quality, in case of frame loss, the reference video is shifted so that its frame and the frame of the evaluated video coincide. To study the effectiveness of the proposed method, an algorithm for measuring the objective quality of video transmission and the corresponding software have been developed. Experimental studies have shown that the algorithm based on the proposed method determines the correct video frames for comparison and, thus, does not introduce errors, in contrast to the existing software for measuring the objective quality of video. This makes it possible to conduct a reliable assessment of the objective quality of video transmission in a peer-to-peer networks under conditions of intense video frame loss.

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