[Live-devel] TCP video streaming over mobile WAN

[Ross Finlayson]

> Platform: We are using Live555 rtsp server in HiSilicon Embedded processor for LAN/WAN video streaming
> Embedded hardware running the server and we are using VLC in the client side (protocol TCP)
> 
> We have tested LAN and Broadband LAN, the stream works fine but when we switch it to mobile WAN the stream works for 15-20 seconds and gets terminated.
> We removed embeded hardware and run RTSP server streaming data from locally stored file to mobile WAN even then the stream stops after some time. We also tried to connect commercial IP cameras together with the same mobile WAN to eliminate poor mobile connection, and it worked. 
> 
> We have tried slice based and frame based encoding but no luck. UDP works fine, but with a lot of grey dropped frames. 

If you are able to stream over UDP, then you should always stream over UDP.  (Streaming RTP/RTCP-over-TCP is less data-efficient, and should be done only if you have a firewall - between your server and client - that blocks UDP packets.)

Also, as I’ve noted several times on this mailing list, you should encode ‘key frames’ as a sequence of ‘slices’, before streaming them.

It sounds like your stream is exceeding - or at least approaching - the data capacity of your WAN.  I suggest adjusting your encoder (by changing some combination of the frame size/complexity, and the frame rate) to reduce your stream’s bitrate.


Ross Finlayson
Live Networks, Inc.
http://www.live555.com/