Vegvisir: A testing framework for HTTP/3 media streaming

Abstract

Assessing media streaming performance traditionally requires the presence of reproducible network conditions and a heterogeneous dataset of media materials. Setting up such experiments represents a complex challenge in itself. This challenge becomes even more complex when we consider the new QUIC transport protocol, which has many tunable features, yet is difficult to analyze due to its inherent encrypted nature. In this paper, we introduce Vegvisir, which aims to solve these aforementioned challenges by providing an open-source automated testing framework for orchestrating media streaming experiments over HTTP/3. We describe how users can steer the behavior of Vegvisir through its configuration system. We provide a high-level overview of its inner workings and its broad applicability by describing two use cases: one covering sizeable experiments spanning multiple days and another covering HAS evaluation scenarios.