As video streaming becomes one of the most fast growing and dominant applications in fixed and mobile networks, how to provide high quality and user satisfaction is a widely studied research topic. In this paper, we develop an analytical framework to derive the downloading rate and bandwidth requirement, so that certain objective quality of experience (QoE) constraints are met.
Particularly, application-specific key performance indicators (KPIs) such as start-up delay and starvation probability are taken into account. Our analysis addresses heterogeneity of both user spatial locations and videorequests. Computer simulations are conducted to verify the accuracy of the proposed analytical framework. Based on the analytical framework, a media server can adapt the downloading rate allocation, e.g., relative to the video playback rate, depending on user demands and network conditions.