The effect of block-wise feedback on the throughput-delay trade-off in streaming
Gauri Joshi, Yuval Kochman, Gregory W. Wornell · 2014
Unlike traditional file transfer where only total delay matters, streaming applications impose delay constraints on each packet and require them to be in order. To achieve fast in-order packet decoding, we have to compromise on the throughput. We study this trade-off between throughput and in-order decoding delay, and in particular how it is affected by the frequency of block-wise feedback, whereby the source receives full channel state feedback at periodic intervals. Our analysis shows that for the same throughput, having more frequent feedback significantly reduces the in-order decoding delay. For any given block-wise feedback delay, we present a spectrum of coding schemes that span different throughput-delay tradeoffs. One can choose an appropriate coding scheme from these, depending upon the delay-sensitivity and bandwidth limitations of the application.