EVB360: Efficient 360-Degree Video Broadcast in Next-Generation Cellular Networks

We propose EVB360, an efficient 360° video broadcast scheme for next-generation NR-MBMS (5G New Radio MBMS) cellular networks. EVB360 employs a dynamic broadcast area definition, adaptive 360-degree video encoding, and tiled transmission using optimized transmission parameters. We define broadcast areas by using K-means clustering and then proportionally assign resources to broadcast adaptively the encoded tiles. EVB360 ensures high level of immersive video broadcast streaming quality to a higher number of served users. Adaptive encoding of 360° video tiles and radio resource (modulation-coding, subframe) allocation is governed by user viewing angle, content request, position, and received signal strength. Our experiments show that our solution enables considerable gains in viewport PSNR (57.44%) and number of served users (72.19%), over a recent state-of-the-art method VRCAST.