Abstract: A system and method for controlling a scalable video application by modeling it as a Markov decision process. The model is based on measuring the relative progress of the application, where relative progress is the difference between the allocated CPU budget for processing a frame and the actual CPU cycles used in processing a frame. The control strategy is based on the number of levels most recently decoded and the maximum levels that can be decoded for the next frame based on the number of received layers (the maximum quality level) and the budgeted CPU time. The object is to smooth quality transitions between frames by developing a quality level control strategy that minimizes both the number of deadline misses (frame not fully decoded) and the number of quality level changes, while maximizing the quality level. The fewer the number of quality level changes, the smoother the image viewed.

Abstract: The invention relates to adaptive scheduling and resource management techniques such as Markov decision problems that can be used to achieve maximum perceived user quality within time and resource constrained environments.