Network Application Studies

The growth of computer networks has led to increasing diversity of Internet applications, including streaming media and network games. Unfortunately, the difficulty of user studies and the rapid rise of new applications has left researchers without precise information on how network and system improvements (treatments) benefit the networked application user. This lack of knowledge makes it difficult to properly assess the benefits of new network treatments or to design the next generation networks that will effectively support the QoS of emerging applications. We intend to bridge this gap in understanding with three innovative projects: 1) integrating measures of network performance with user perception; 2) quality of service for network games; and 3) adaptive streaming media repair.

• Kajal Claypool and Mark Claypool. On Frame Rate and Player Performance in First Person Shooter Games, ACM/Springer Multimedia Systems Journal (MMSJ), 2007. Online at: http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool/papers/fr/

• Feng Li, Mingzhe Li, Rui Lu, Huahui Wu, Mark Claypool, and Robert Kinicki. Measuring Queue Capacities of IEEE 802.11 Wireless Access Points, In Proceedings of the Fourth IEEE International conference on Broadband Communications, Networks and Systems (BROADNETS), Raleigh, NC, USA, September 2007. Online at: http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool/papers/apq/

• Kajal Claypool and Mark Claypool. The Effects of Resolution on Users Playing First Person Shooter Games, In Proceedings ACM/SPIE Multimedia Computing and Networking (MMCN) Conference, San Jose, California, USA, January 2007. Online at: http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool/papers/rez/

• Mark Claypool, Robert Kinicki, William Lee, Mingzhe Li, and Gregory Ratner. Characterization by Measurement of a CDMA 1x EVDO Network, In Proceedings of the Wireless Internet Conference (WICON), Boston, Massachusetts, USA, August 2006. Online at: http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool/papers/evdo/

• Huahui Wu, Mark Claypool, and Robert Kinicki. On Combining Temporal Scaling and Quality Scaling for Streaming MPEG, In Proceedings of the 16th ACM International Workshop on Network and Operating Systems Support for Digital Audio and Video (NOSSDAV), Newport, Rhode Island, USA, May 2006. Online at: http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool/papers/adaptive-fec-tsqs/

• Feng Li, Mingzhe Li, Rui Lu, Huahui Wu, Mark Claypool, and Robert Kinicki. Tools and Techniques for Measurement of IEEE 802.11 Wireless Networks, In Proceedings of the Second International Workshop On Wireless Network Measurement (WiNMee), Boston, MA, USA, April 2006. Online at: http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool/papers/tools/

• Huahui Wu, Mark Claypool and Robert Kinicki. Guidelines for Selecting Practical MPEG Group of Pictures, In Proceedings of IASTED International Conference on Internet and Multimedia Systems and Applications (EuroIMSA), Innsbruck, Austria, February 2006. Online at: http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool/papers/practical-gop/

• Mark Claypool, Kajal Claypool, and Feissal Dama. The Effects of Frame Rate and Resolution on Users Playing First Person Shooter Games, In Proceedings ACM/SPIE Multimedia Computing and Networking (MMCN) Conference, San Jose, California, USA, January 2006. Online at: http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool/papers/fr-rez/

• Jon Gretarsson, Feng Li, Mingzhe Li, Ashish Samant, Huahui Wu, Mark Claypool and Robert Kinicki. Performance Analysis of the Intertwined Effects between Network Layers for 802.11g Transmissions, In Proceedings of the 1st ACM Workshop on Wireless Multimedia Networking and Performance Modeling (WMuNeP), Montreal, Canada, October 2005. Online at: http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool/papers/co-ap/

• Mark Claypool. On the 802.11 Turbulence of Nintendo DS and Sony PSP Hand-held Network Games, In Proceedings of the 4th ACM Network and System Support for Games (NetGames), Hawthorne, NY, USA, October 2005. Online at: http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool/papers/hand-held/

• Steven Gargolinski, Christopher St. Pierre, and Mark Claypool. Game Server Selection for Multiple Players, In Proceedings of the 4th ACM Network and System Support for Games (NetGames), Hawthorne, NY, USA, October 2005. Online at: http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool/papers/musst/

• Huahui Wu, Mark Claypool, and Robert Kinicki. Adjusting Forward Error Correction with Quality Scaling for Streaming MPEG, In Proceedings of the 15th ACM International Workshop on Network and Operating Systems Support for Digital Audio and Video (NOSSDAV), Stevenson, Washington, USA, June 2005. Online at: http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool/papers/adaptive-fec-qual/

• Mingzhe Li, Feng Li, Mark Claypool, and Robert Kinicki. Weather Forecasting - Predicting Performance for Streaming Video over Wireless LANs, In Proceedings of the 15th ACM International Workshop on Network and Operating Systems Support for Digital Audio and Video (NOSSDAV), Stevenson, Washington, USA, June 2005. Online at: http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool/papers/weather/

• Feng Li, Jae Chung, Mingzhe Li, Huahui Wu, Mark Claypool, and Robert Kinicki. Application, Network and Link Layer Measurements of Streaming Video over a Wireless Campus Network, In Proceedings of the 6th Passive and Active Network Measurement Workshop (PAM), Boston, Massachusetts, USA, April 2005. Online at: http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool/papers/wlan/

• Wireless streaming multimedia performance measurement

• Forward Error Correction for streaming multimedia

• Network game traffic analysis

• Analysis of turbulence caused for network applications

• Quality of Service for network applications

Other research groups and labs:

• Video Tracer Project
• Wireless Streaming Multimedia Laboratory
• Congestion Control (CC) Research Group

Media players plus:

• The Real Platform from RealNetworks.
• The Helix Community, an open community for digital media delivery for Real.
• The Windows Media home.
• Quicktime, from Apple.
• Darwin, an open source streaming server for QuickTime.

There have been contributions to this project by faculty, graduate students and undergraduate students.

Faculty

• Mark Claypool
• Robert Kinicki
• Craig Wills

Graduate Students

• Jae Chung
• Feng Li
• Mingze Li
• Rui Lu
• Ashish Samant
• Huahui Wu

Undergraduate Students

• Andrew Brommelhof
• Feissal Dama (UMass Lowell)
• Yong Heng Wu Fang
• Steven Gargoliniski
• Jon Gretarsson
• Leon Kay (UMass Lowell)
• Jesse King
• William Lee
• Brian Platt
• Gregory Ratner
• Allen Seitz
• Chris St. Pierre
• Nathan Tibbetts

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number CNS-0423362. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recomendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation (NSF).