ABSTRACT
Multihop wireless networks (e.g., ad hoc networks) are characterized by infrastructure independence and user mobility, making them an excellent match for applications that demand great simplicity and flexibility in deployment and operations. However, the resulting fragile multihop wireless paths and dynamic topology pose significant technical challenges for enabling multimedia services in such networks. This chapter studies the problem of cross-layer multipath routing for multiple description (MD) video in multihop wireless networks. In particular, we provide practical solutions to the following key questions: (i) How to formulate a multimedia-centric routing problem that minimizes video distortion by choosing optimal paths? (ii) What are the performance limits? (iii) How to design an efficient solution procedure? (iv) How to implement the proposed algorithms in a distributed environment? We show that cross-layer design is imperative and effective to meeting the stringent quality of service (QoS) requirements of multimedia applications in highly dynamic multihop wireless networks.
