{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,10]],"date-time":"2025-10-10T01:45:10Z","timestamp":1760060710902,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":35,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"10","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,23]],"date-time":"2025-09-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1758585600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Computers"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Illegal broadcasting is one of the primary challenges for Over the Top (OTT) service providers. Watermarking is a method used to trace illegal redistribution of video content. However, watermarking introduces processing overhead due to the embedding of unique patterns into the video content, which results in additional latency. End-to-end network latency, caused by network congestion or heavy load on the origin server, can slow data transmission, impacting the time it takes for the segment to reach the client. This paper addresses 5xx errors (e.g., 503, 504) at the Content Delivery Network (CDN) in real-world video streaming platforms, which can negatively impact Quality of Experience (QoE), particularly when watermarking techniques are employed. To address the performance issues caused by the integration of watermarking technology, we enhanced the system architecture by introducing and optimizing a shield cache in front of the packager at the origin server and fine-tuning the CDN configuration. These optimizations significantly reduced the processing load on the packager, minimized latency, and improved overall content delivery. As a result, we achieved a 6% improvement in the Key Performance Indicator (KPI), reflecting enhanced system stability and video quality.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/computers14100404","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,23]],"date-time":"2025-09-23T08:09:42Z","timestamp":1758614982000},"page":"404","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Security-Aware Adaptive Video Streaming via Watermarking: Tackling Time-to-First-Byte Delays and QoE Issues in Live Video Delivery Systems"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"14","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6587-0125","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Reza","family":"Kalan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Engineering, Istinye University, Istanbul 34396, T\u00fcrkiye"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0702-2179","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Peren Jerfi","family":"Canatalay","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Engineering, Istinye University, Istanbul 34396, T\u00fcrkiye"}]},{"given":"Emre","family":"Karsli","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"R&D Department, Digiturk beIN Media Group, Istanbul 34353, T\u00fcrkiye"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"Farahani, R., Azimi, Z., Timmerer, C., and Prodan, R. (2024). Towards ai-assisted sustainable adaptive video streaming systems: Tutorial and survey. arXiv."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"47741","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2020.2979385","article-title":"Beyond first impressions: Estimating quality of experience for interactive web applications","volume":"8","author":"Jahromi","year":"2020","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Gao, Q., Dey, P., and Ahammad, P. (2017, January 21). Perceived performance of top retail webpages in the wild: Insights from large-scale crowdsourcing of above-the-fold qoe. Proceedings of the Workshop on QoE-Based Analysis and Management of Data Communication Networks, Los Angeles, CA, USA.","DOI":"10.1145\/3098603.3098606"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Thelagathoti, R.K., Mastorakis, S., Shah, A., Bedi, H., and Shannigrahi, S. (2020, January 9\u201311). Named data networking for content delivery network workflows. Proceedings of the 2020 IEEE 9th International Conference on Cloud Networking (CloudNet), Piscataway, NJ, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/CloudNet51028.2020.9335806"},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"15957","DOI":"10.1007\/s11042-023-15895-9","article-title":"Improving quality of experience in adaptive low latency live streaming","volume":"83","author":"Lyko","year":"2024","journal-title":"Multimed. Tools Appl."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"120514","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2022.3220694","article-title":"A survey on mobile edge computing for video streaming: Opportunities and challenges","volume":"10","author":"Khan","year":"2022","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bentaleb, A., Zhan, Z., Tashtarian, F., Lim, M., Harous, S., Timmerer, C., Hellwagner, H., and Zimmermann, R. (2022, January 10\u201314). Low latency live streaming implementation in dash and hls. Proceedings of the 30th ACM International Conference on Multimedia, Lisbon, Portugal.","DOI":"10.1145\/3503161.3548544"},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"170803","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2024.3491613","article-title":"A Survey on QoE Management Schemes for HTTP Adaptive Video Streaming: Challenges, Solutions, and Opportunities","volume":"12","author":"Kalan","year":"2024","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Villegas-Ch, W., Garc\u00eda-Ortiz, J., and Govea, J. (2023). A comprehensive approach to image protection in digital environments. Computers, 12.","DOI":"10.3390\/computers12080155"},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Helmy, M., and Torkey, H. (2025). Secured Audio Framework Based on Chaotic-Steganography Algorithm for Internet of Things Systems. Computers, 14.","DOI":"10.3390\/computers14060207"},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"5531","DOI":"10.1007\/s11042-023-15806-y","article-title":"Digital image and video watermarking: Methodologies, attacks, applications, and future directions","volume":"83","author":"Aberna","year":"2024","journal-title":"Multimed. Tools Appl."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2131","DOI":"10.1109\/TCSVT.2017.2712162","article-title":"An overview of digital video watermarking","volume":"28","author":"Asikuzzaman","year":"2017","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst. Video Technol."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"953","DOI":"10.1007\/s00530-021-00765-x","article-title":"An effective and secure video watermarking using hybrid technique","volume":"27","author":"Dhevanandhini","year":"2021","journal-title":"Multimed. Syst."},{"key":"ref_14","unstructured":"Artru, R., Gouaillard, A., and Ebrahimi, T. (2019). Digital Watermarking of video streams: Review of the State-of-the-Art. arXiv."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"161","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jvcir.2016.11.018","article-title":"A practical design of digital watermarking for video streaming services","volume":"42","author":"Su","year":"2017","journal-title":"J. Vis. Commun. Image Represent."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"114172","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2020.3004049","article-title":"HEVC watermarking techniques for authentication and copyright applications: Challenges and opportunities","volume":"8","author":"Elrowayati","year":"2020","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ye, G., Gao, J., Wang, Y., Song, L., and Wei, X. (2023, January 11\u201314). ItoV: Efficiently adapting deep learning-based image watermarking to video watermarking. Proceedings of the 2023 International Conference on Culture-Oriented Science and Technology (CoST), Xi\u2019an, China.","DOI":"10.1109\/CoST60524.2023.00047"},{"key":"ref_18","first-page":"325","article-title":"Implementation-free forensic watermarking for adaptive streaming with A\/B watermarking","volume":"Volume 1","author":"Mareen","year":"2021","journal-title":"Proceedings of the Sixth International Congress on Information and Communication Technology: ICICT 2021"},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1237","DOI":"10.1007\/s10462-020-09877-8","article-title":"A new chaotic complex map for robust video watermarking","volume":"54","author":"Ayubi","year":"2021","journal-title":"Artif. Intell. Rev."},{"key":"ref_20","first-page":"6","article-title":"DWT-PCA based video watermarking","volume":"2","author":"Takale","year":"2022","journal-title":"J. Electron. Comput. Netw. Appl. Math. (JECNAM) ISSN"},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4702","DOI":"10.1109\/TDSC.2022.3232484","article-title":"Robust blind video watermarking against geometric deformations and online video sharing platform processing","volume":"20","author":"He","year":"2022","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Dependable Secur. Comput."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"15681","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2022.3146723","article-title":"Blind camcording-resistant video watermarking in the DTCWT and SVD domain","volume":"10","author":"Asikuzzaman","year":"2022","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kaczy\u0144ski, M., and Piotrowski, Z. (2022). High-quality video watermarking based on deep neural networks and adjustable subsquares properties algorithm. Sensors, 22.","DOI":"10.3390\/s22145376"},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"101688","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jksuci.2023.101688","article-title":"Non-redundant shift-invariant complex wavelet transform and fractional gorilla troops optimization-based deep convolutional neural network for video watermarking","volume":"35","author":"Mali","year":"2023","journal-title":"J. King Saud Univ.-Comput. Inf. Sci."},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"7342","DOI":"10.1109\/TCSVT.2023.3281618","article-title":"A fast method for robust video watermarking based on Zernike moments","volume":"33","author":"Chen","year":"2023","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst. Video Technol."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"155","DOI":"10.3991\/ijoe.v19i04.37581","article-title":"A Novel Method of Invisible Video Watermarking Based on Index Mapping and Hybrid DWT-DCT","volume":"19","author":"Hazim","year":"2023","journal-title":"Int. J. Online Biomed. Eng."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"110066","DOI":"10.1016\/j.knosys.2022.110066","article-title":"An efficient video watermark method using blockchain","volume":"259","author":"Liu","year":"2023","journal-title":"Knowl.-Based Syst."},{"key":"ref_28","unstructured":"Fernandez, P., Elsahar, H., Yalniz, I.Z., and Mourachko, A. (2024). Video seal: Open and efficient video watermarking. arXiv."},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"13413","DOI":"10.1109\/TCSVT.2024.3448502","article-title":"Automatic, robust and blind video watermarking resisting camera recording","volume":"40","author":"Lin","year":"2024","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst. Video Technol."},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"40","DOI":"10.1007\/s11554-025-01620-2","article-title":"Efficient FPGA implementation of chaos-based real-time video watermarking system in spatial and DWT domain using QIM technique","volume":"22","author":"Aissaoui","year":"2025","journal-title":"J. Real-Time Image Process."},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"5603","DOI":"10.1109\/TDSC.2025.3569971","article-title":"Design Principles for Orthogonal Moments in Video Watermarking","volume":"22","author":"He","year":"2025","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Dependable Secur. Comput."},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"799","DOI":"10.1109\/TBC.2021.3071010","article-title":"Video super-resolution and caching\u2014An edge-assisted adaptive video streaming solution","volume":"67","author":"Zhang","year":"2021","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Broadcast."},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kalan, R.S. (2021, January 25\u201329). Improving quality of HTTP adaptive streaming with server and network-assisted DASH. Proceedings of the 2021 17th International Conference on Network and Service Management (CNSM), Izmir, Turkey.","DOI":"10.23919\/CNSM52442.2021.9615507"},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1363","DOI":"10.1109\/COMST.2024.3427360","article-title":"A Survey on Intelligent Solutions for Increased Video Delivery Quality in Cloud-Edge-End Networks","volume":"27","author":"Shi","year":"2025","journal-title":"IEEE Commun. Surv. Tutor."},{"key":"ref_35","unstructured":"Barry, P., and Wagner, J. (2025). Time to First Byte (TTFB). Speed Metrics Guide, Springer."}],"container-title":["Computers"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2073-431X\/14\/10\/404\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,9]],"date-time":"2025-10-09T18:47:25Z","timestamp":1760035645000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2073-431X\/14\/10\/404"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,23]]},"references-count":35,"journal-issue":{"issue":"10","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,10]]}},"alternative-id":["computers14100404"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/computers14100404","relation":{},"ISSN":["2073-431X"],"issn-type":[{"type":"electronic","value":"2073-431X"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,23]]}}}