VISTA: A Benchmark for Real-Time Video Streaming under Network Impairments in Surgical Teleoperation

2026-05-09

AI Summary

This study addresses the absence of a reproducible benchmark for evaluating remote surgical video streaming under realistic network impairments. The authors propose the first standardized evaluation framework that jointly models network conditions, video quality, and surgical task performance. Leveraging Linux Traffic Control with NetEm and a Gilbert-Elliott packet loss model, the framework simulates five representative network scenarios while simultaneously measuring QoS metrics, objective video quality (PSNR, SSIM, VMAF), temporal continuity (freeze ratio), and human operator performance. Across 375 experimental trials, network degradation caused task success rates to plummet from 97% to 12% and completion times to increase from 80 to 255 seconds, thereby providing the first systematic evidence of the substantial impact of forward video link impairments on remote surgical performance.

Abstract

Real-time video streaming is crucial in surgical teleoperation, yet reproducible evaluation under realistic network impairments remains limited. This paper presents VISTA, a benchmark designed to study how impairments along the forward video path affect received video quality, temporal continuity, and human task performance. VISTA employs Linux Traffic Control with NetEm and a Gilbert-Elliott loss model to emulate five network conditions: Hospital LAN, 5G Urban, 4G Rural, LEO Satellite, and GEO Satellite. The benchmark integrates a standardised peg transfer task with synchronized measurements of network quality of service (QoS), objective video quality (PSNR, SSIM, and VMAF), and temporal continuity through freeze rate, while maintaining a stable reverse control channel. Across 375 experimental trials, network degradation substantially reduced teleoperation performance: success rate decreased from 97% in Hospital LAN to 79% in 5G Urban, 35% in 4G Rural, 71% in LEO Satellite, and 12% in GEO Satellite, while mean task completion time for successful trials increased from 80 s in Hospital LAN to 117 s in 5G Urban, 211 s in 4G Rural, 152 s in LEO Satellite, and 255 s in GEO Satellite. These findings show that network impairments have a direct impact on task completion and success in surgical teleoperation, and provide a reproducible basis for evaluating teleoperation video under realistic network constraints. Source code available at https://github.com/Dzxx623/VISTA.

Problem

• surgical teleoperation
• real-time video streaming
• network impairments
• video quality
• task performance

Innovation

• video streaming benchmark
• network impairment emulation
• surgical teleoperation
• temporal continuity
• objective video quality