  Transmission of video over a limited bandwidth network is challenging due to
the natural variability of video, and link characteristics. Video smoothing
techniques can be used to facilitate more effective transmission and to
preserve better quality. In this paper we develop a semi-optimal video
smoothing approach to manage the transmission of MPEG-4 and H.264 video while
mapping it to be more suitable for a QoS based network. The proposed technique
utilizes a smoothing buffer with pre-defined thresholds to smooth the
transmission rates while assuming minimal information about the video to be
transmitted. The results obtained showed a significant improvements in
transmission rate variability while guaranteeing no buffer overflows or
underflows. In addition, a queuing model is developed for the used smoothing
algorithm for H.264 video streams with optimized encoding and packetization,
utilizing the available H.264 macroblock ordering option.
