Resource Allocation for Multi-User Video Transmission over Multi-Carrier Networks

This paper addresses the problem of multi-user video transmission over the uplink of multi-carrier networks from an information theoretic perspective. Under the constraints imposed by the physical (PHY) and medium access control (MAC) layers, we exploit the unique property of state-of-the-art video coders that can provide bitstream prioritization in terms of distortion impact and solve the problem of allocating wireless resources, i.e., power and rate among multiple users such that the weighted sum of the overall video qualities is maximized. An optimality condition is derived to describe the achievable convex utility region. We start from the two-user case and develop an algorithm for the optimal resource allocation. Inspired by the intuition gained from the two-user case, we extend the algorithm to the multiple-user case. Our numerical simulations show that the proposed resource allocation algorithms give significant performance improvements as compared to application-layer agnostic solutions that do not consider the quality impact.