Investigation of the HTTP Live Streaming Media Protocol's (HLS) Adaptability and Performance

HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) is the most widely used HTTP protocol for live streaming developed by Apple and is adaptive in nature. In our study, we assess the performance of HLS by measuring its latency, throughput, error rate and stability. The performance is measured with the help of using tool like Apache JMeter followed by integration of the UBIK media streaming sampler plugin. The experiment is performed multiple times with a maximum of three virtual users under real-time conditions and the results demonstrate that HLS provides low latency and high throughput, allowing for smooth and uninterrupted multimedia streaming. The protocol also demonstrates good stability, with minimal fluctuations in quality even under changing network conditions showing throughput of 1.2 MbPS which is considered to be smooth streaming in HLS. A packet drops or error rate of 5 percent is seen which leads to a latency of 10 ms.