Cross-layer Optimization for m-Health SVC Multiple Video Transmission over LTE Uplink

M-health services are expected to become increas- ingly relevant in the management of emergency situations, enabling real-time support of remote medical experts. In this context, the transmission of health-related information from an ambulance to a remote hospital is a challenging task, due to the variability and the limitations of the mobile radio link. In particular, the transmission of multiple video streams can improve the efficacy of the tele-consultation service, but requires a large bandwidth to meet the desired quality, not always guaranteed by the mobile network. In this paper we propose a novel cross-layer adaptation strategy for multiple SVC videos delivered over a single LTE channel, which dynamically adjusts the overall transmitted throughput to meet the actual available bandwidth, while being able to provide high quality to diagnostic video sequences and lower (but fair) quality to less critical ambient videos. After having introduced a realistic LTE uplink scenario, including an advanced resource allocation strategy, we show through numerical simulations that the proposed solution is capable to achieve an optimal end-to-end video quality for both the diagnostic and the ambient videos.