IEEE-SA launches initiative to accelerate mobile video innovation

2012 International CES, LAS VEGAS, USA: The IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) announced an initiative intended to yield a host of interrelated mobile video standards.

The approval of three standards-development projects—spanning varied challenges such as improving the quality of real-time mobile video communications, supporting more efficient and flexible methods for downloading or streaming video to mobile handsets and measuring the quality of 3D video experience—kicks off the new IEEE-SA initiative.

“Mobile video is a phenomenally promising technology space, with the potential to transform and enable whole new applications and business models. But in order for that chain of events to be set in motion, significant challenges must be addressed in the areas of quality, user experience and cost of delivery, among others,” said Judith Gorman, managing director, IEEE-SA.

“With its deep understanding of video technologies and unique capacity for consensus- building and standards development, IEEE is the natural entity to catalyze the standards needs that mobile video requires for the industry to fulfill its potential.”

Video already accounts for more than half of all global mobile data traffic, and it is forecast to assume a steadily larger share of bandwidth on mobile networks in the coming years of growth. Per the “Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Global Data Traffic Forecast, 2010-2015,” video is expected to record a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 104 percent from 2010 through 2015—by the end of that year accounting for 66 percent of all global mobile data traffic.

In anticipation of such growth, IEEE has launched its mobile video standards initiative with three development projects: IEEE P1907.1 “Standard for Network-Adaptive Quality of Experience (QoE) Management Scheme for Real-Time Mobile Video Communications,” IEEE P2200 “Standard Protocol for Stream Management in Media Client Devices” and IEEE P3333 “Standard for the Quality Assessment of Three Dimensional (3D) Displays, 3D Contents and 3D Devices based on Human Factors.”

IEEE P1907.1 is being developed to define an end-to-end QoE management scheme for real-time video communication systems. Despite the rapid adoption of video-enabled smartphones and other devices, explosive growth in social media platforms and rising demand for user-generated video content, mobile consumers often experience video quality that lags far behind that of traditional broadcast mediums. IEEE P1907.1 is intended to dramatically enhance the user experience for real-time mobile video.

IEEE P2200 is being launched to enable more efficient downloading and streaming of high-quality content through the standardization of time-shifted caching to mobile devices. By defining mechanisms by which video content could be queued for later delivery and to time-shift streams such that they are not as dependent on the network conditions available at the time of the request, the standard is intended to both improve user experience and relieve congestion on wireless networks.

IEEE P3333 is designed to establish methods of quality assessment of 3D displays, contents and devices based on human factors such as photosensitive seizures, motion sickness and visual fatigue. Developers of 3D monitors, display panels and signal processing engines and providers of 3D content such as movies and TV shows are among the broad range of stakeholders in IEEE P3333’s development.