2-D scalable multiple description coding for robust H.264/SVC video communications

Abstract

In this chapter, we investigate two popular techniques for error-resilient H.264/SVC video transmission over packet erasure networks, i.e., layered video coding (LVC) and scalable multiple description coding (SMDC). We compare the respective advantages and disadvantages of these two coding techniques. A comprehensive literature review on latest advancement on SMDC is provided. Furthermore, we report new simulation results for the novel two-dimensional scalable multiple description coding (2-D SMDC) scheme proposed in our previous work (Xiang et al., 2009). The 2-D SMDC scheme allocates multiple description sub-bitstreams of a two-dimensionally scalable bitstream to two network paths with unequal loss rates. We formulate the two-dimensional scalable rate-distortion problem and derive the expected distortion for the proposed scheme. To minimize the end-to-end distortion given the total rate budget and packet loss probabilities, we need to optimally allocate source and channel rates for each hierarchical sub-layer of the scalable bitstream. We consider the use of the Genetic Algorithm to solve the rate-distortion optimization problem. The simulation results verify that the proposed method is able to achieve significant performance gain as opposed to the conventional equal rate allocation method.