NeTS: Small: Video-Aware Network Transport + Network-Aware Video Coding

该项目将通过跨越视频编码和计算机网络系统的研究领域，为互联网视频流建立新的基础技术。其目标是消除视频故障和停顿，并建立抽象以实现“视频万维网”，任何人都可以使用超链接来引用，引用，摘录和编辑在线教育和其他视频。 该项目将开发一个开源视频流应用程序，称为Alfred。Alfred将类似于传统系统（例如Netflix，YouTube），因为它将通过HTTP从Web服务器获取和播放编码视频。但与这些“自适应比特率流”系统不同的是，Alfred根本没有编码视频“比特率”或“流”的概念。相反，每个帧将是质量级别之间的可能切换点，播放器的工作将是在运行时规划通过视频的最佳逐帧路径，以最大限度地提高体验质量指标。这样做的目的是使视频编码器尽可能的“哑”，并在播放时做出大多数速率控制决策。 更广泛的影响：强有力的视频流和“视频万维网”将成为学生学习和制作在线视频课程的直接倍增器，特别是在世界上互联网连通性差的地区。该项目计划与在线课程提供商合作，测试Alfred技术，并使用该技术在适当的课堂上进行学生驱动的在线视频编辑。此外，该项目还将包括一个演示部分，向公众播放美国广播电视台的流媒体，教育公众有关视频流媒体技术，并招募参与者，以更好地了解影响在线视频“体验质量”的因素。

This project will build new foundational technology for Internet video streaming, by spanning the research areas of video-coding and computer-networking systems. The goal is to get rid of video glitches and stalls, and to build the abstractions to enable a "World Wide Web of video," where anybody can use hyperlinks to reference, quote, excerpt, and edit educational and other videos online. The project will develop an open-source video-streaming application, to be called Alfalfa. Alfalfa will be similar to traditional systems (e.g. Netflix, YouTube) in that it will fetch and play encoded video from a Web server via HTTP. But unlike these "adaptive-bitrate streaming" systems, Alfalfa will not have a concept of a coded video "bitrate" or "stream" at all. Instead, each frame will be a possible switching point between quality levels, and the player's job will be to plan, at runtime, the best frame-by-frame path through the video that maximizes a quality-of-experience metric. The intention is to make the video encoder as "dumb" as possible and to make most rate-control decisions at playback time. Broader Impacts: Robust video streaming and the "World Wide Web of video" will serve as a direct multiplier for students taking and creating online video courses, especially in regions of the world with poor Internet connectivity. The project plans to collaborate with providers of online courses to test the Alfalfa technology and use it to allow student-driven online video editing in appropriate classes. In addition, the project will include a demonstration component that will stream U.S. broadcast television stations to members of the public, educating the public about video-streaming technology and enlisting participants in an effort to better understand the factors that influence the "quality of experience" of online video.