On real-time video streaming over LTE networks with mobile-to-mobile cooperation

Real-time video streaming over LTE networks is investigated in the presence of mobile-to-mobile collaboration. Mobiles are grouped into collaborative clusters using a low-complexity clustering algorithm. In each cluster, collaboration is implemented by having a cluster head multicast the content to other cluster members using a short-range wireless communication technology. The cluster heads receive the data on the long-range LTE links either via unicasting or multicasting. LTE scheduling is taken into account on the long range transmissions. The proposed approach is compared to the non-collaborative scenario. Results show that the proposed approach leads reduced energy consumption, enhanced video quality (reduction of loss distortion), and bandwidth savings.