An Enhanced Explicit Port Forwarding Solution for Improving Video Delivery over Software-Defined Networks

Abstract

In order to improve video delivery, an Enhanced Explicit Port Forwarding (EEPF) solution is proposed. Data are divided into ordinary packets and video packets using a packet identification mechanism. Traditional mechanisms transmit packets through routing table lookup. As the size of the routing table often becomes excessively large, this lookup can be time-consuming. While the EEPF solution directly includes the transmission path in the video packet, which can reduce the transmission time. And by setting header flags/fields in video packets, the transmission can be further optimized. For example, to reduce the amount of duplicate data to be transmitted for broadcast packets are not replicated until they arrive at the destination switch; to avoid packet loss caused by disconnection, the transmission path can be monitored and rerouting can be initiated immediately in the event of disconnection; to increase the chance of successful delivery, packets can be replicated before they are transmitted via a path with high packet loss risk; and to prevent video packets from being discarded, the switch queue status can be monitored and managed. The testing results have shown that the EEPF solution can effectively shorten the time of video packet transmission and improve the quality of transmitted video.