Optiva Media R&I has achieved the Arqueopterix project

Adaptive and Responsive Quality On demand based on real-time Protocol and extreme encoding

24/02/2020

Arqueopterix is a National Research Project fostered by the CDTI in which Optiva Media collaborated with 5 other Spanish companies (Nokia-Alcatel, Brainstorm, Experis-Innovati, TRC and MásMóvil), and 4 research institutions (Gradiant, Tecnalia, UPM and UPV), from December 2015 to March 2019.

The main objective was to improve the user experience of interactive video applications on fixed and mobile networks, with particular applicability in the entertainment industry (virtualized games and multiplayer online games) but also in applications where a smooth user experience is expected. This goal has been achieved through research and the combined use of three new technologies:

The implementation of the Q4S (Quality for Service) protocol for real-time measurement of the quality of an E2E connection and the generation of alerts to make application and network level actions, through an Actuator software, to provide “dynamic quality on demand”.
A new coding technology has been implemented (totally free and without patents) called LHE (Logarithmical Hopping Encoding) which reduces encoding time of video while the consumption of bandwidth versus quality is reduced.
Development of a Network Policy Server to enable real-time interaction over operator network elements on a SDN (Software Defined Network) based on generated Q4S alerts.

Optiva Media has been leading the Q4S protocol and the development of the Actuator software, integrating it in a video on demand streaming platform to create a QoS-based Smart CDN where the video is always served from the server with the highest quality connection, enabling automatic switching between servers in case the quality of the current server decreases.

The results from the validation of the above-mentioned scenario were used to improve the Q4S protocol and its submission to the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) for its approval as a standard/RFC.

We are absolutely happy and proud to announce that we have successfully passed the audit and we are just waiting for our RFC so we will turn our protocol into a public standard!