In-service Video Quality assessment based on SDN/NFV techniques

This paper discusses the utilization of SDN/NFV as enabling technology for the provision of in-service video quality assessment. The proposed method is based on a reduced reference extension of the widely used full reference SSIM metric, proving how the applicability of SDN/NFV can support the development of novel value-added service. The proposed video quality assessment method is based on a two-step process, where in the first step a test pattern is used as a reference for the assessment of the original and the degraded signal and in the second step the SSIM value is estimated by the combination of these measurements. For the validation of the proposed method, a SDN/NFV infrastructure was deployed, supporting traffic steering of selected video flows through the VNF instantiation of the proposed method. The evaluation results demonstrated the advantages in terms of agility and flexibility of the SDN/NFV combination in the provision of the proposed in-service video quality assessment methodology.