A Simulation Tool for Evaluating Video Streaming Architectures in Vehicular Network Scenarios

Abstract

An integrated simulation tool called Video Delivery Simulation Framework over Vehicular Networks (VDSF-VN) is presented. This framework is intended to allow users to conduct experiments related to video transmission in vehicular networks by means of simulation. Research on this topic requires the use of many independent tools, such as traffic and network simulators, intermediate frameworks, video encoders and decoders, converters, platform-dependent scripting languages, data visualisation packages and spreadsheets, and some other tasks are performed manually. The lack of tools necessary to carry out all these tasks in an integrated and efficient way formed the motivation for the development of the VDSF-VN framework. It is managed via two user-friendly applications, GatcomSUMO and GatcomVideo, which allow all the necessary tasks to be accomplished. The first is primarily used to build the network scenario and set up the traffic flows, whereas the second involves the delivery process of the whole video, encoding/decoding video, running simulations, and processing all the experimental results to automatically provide the requested figures, tables and reports. This multiplatform framework is intended to fill the existing gap in this field, and has been successfully used in several experimental tests of vehicular networks