An efficient rate control algorithm for a wavelet video codec

Rate control plays an essential role in video coding and transmission to provide the best video quality at the receiver's end given the constraint of certain network conditions. In this paper, a rate control algorithm using the Quality Factor (QF) optimization method is proposed for the wavelet-based video codec and implemented on an open source Dirac video encoder. A mathematical model which we call Rate-QF (R - QF) model is derived to generate the optimum QF for the current coding frame according to the target bitrate. The proposed algorithm is a complete one pass process and does not require complex mathematical calculation. The process of calculating the QF is quite simple and further calculation is not required for each coded frame. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can control the bitrate precisely (within 1% of target bitrate in average). Moreover, the variation of bitrate over each Group of Pictures (GOPs) is lower than that of H.264. This is an advantage in preventing the buffer overflow and underflow for real-time multimedia data streaming

TTCM-aided rate-adaptive distributed source coding for Rayleigh fading channels

Adaptive turbo-trellis-coded modulation (TTCM)-aided asymmetric distributed source coding (DSC) is proposed, where two correlated sources are transmitted to a destination node. The first source sequence is TTCM encoded and is further compressed before it is transmitted through a Rayleigh fading channel, whereas the second source signal is assumed to be perfectly decoded and, hence, to be flawlessly shown at the destination for exploitation as side information for improving the decoding performance of the first source. The proposed scheme is capable of reliable communications within 0.80 dB of the Slepian-Wolf/Shannon (SW/S) theoretical limit at a bit error rate (BER) of 10-5. Furthermore, its encoder is capable of accommodating time-variant short-term correlation between the two sources

Loss-resilient Coding of Texture and Depth for Free-viewpoint Video Conferencing

Free-viewpoint video conferencing allows a participant to observe the remote 3D scene from any freely chosen viewpoint. An intermediate virtual viewpoint image is commonly synthesized using two pairs of transmitted texture and depth maps from two neighboring captured viewpoints via depth-image-based rendering (DIBR). To maintain high quality of synthesized images, it is imperative to contain the adverse effects of network packet losses that may arise during texture and depth video transmission. Towards this end, we develop an integrated approach that exploits the representation redundancy inherent in the multiple streamed videos a voxel in the 3D scene visible to two captured views is sampled and coded twice in the two views. In particular, at the receiver we first develop an error concealment strategy that adaptively blends corresponding pixels in the two captured views during DIBR, so that pixels from the more reliable transmitted view are weighted more heavily. We then couple it with a sender-side optimization of reference picture selection (RPS) during real-time video coding, so that blocks containing samples of voxels that are visible in both views are more error-resiliently coded in one view only, given adaptive blending will erase errors in the other view. Further, synthesized view distortion sensitivities to texture versus depth errors are analyzed, so that relative importance of texture and depth code blocks can be computed for system-wide RPS optimization. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme can outperform the use of a traditional feedback channel by up to 0.82 dB on average at 8% packet loss rate, and by as much as 3 dB for particular frames

Source and Physical-Layer Network Coding for Correlated Two-Way Relaying

In this paper, we study a half-duplex two-way relay channel (TWRC) with correlated sources exchanging bidirectional information. In the case, when both sources have the knowledge of correlation statistics, a source compression with physical-layer network coding (SCPNC) scheme is proposed to perform the distributed compression at each source node. When only the relay has the knowledge of correlation statistics, we propose a relay compression with physical-layer network coding (RCPNC) scheme to compress the bidirectional messages at the relay. The closed-form block error rate (BLER) expressions of both schemes are derived and verified through simulations. It is shown that the proposed schemes achieve considerable improvements in both error performance and throughput compared with the conventional non-compression scheme in correlated two-way relay networks (CTWRNs).Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures. IET Communications, 201

Providing Dynamic TXOP for QoS Support of Video Transmission in IEEE 802.11e WLANs

The IEEE 802.11e standard introduced by IEEE 802.11 Task Group E (TGe) enhances the Quality of Service (QoS) by means of HCF Controlled Channel Access (HCCA). The scheduler of HCCA allocates Transmission Opportunities (TXOPs) to QoS-enabled Station (QSTA) based on their TS Specifications (TSPECs) negotiated at the traffic setup time so that it is only efficient for Constant Bit Rate (CBR) applications. However, Variable Bit Rate (VBR) traffics are not efficiently supported as they exhibit nondeterministic profile during the time. In this paper, we present a dynamic TXOP assignment Scheduling Algorithm for supporting the video traffics transmission over IEEE 802.11e wireless networks. This algorithm uses a piggybacked information about the size of the subsequent video frames of the uplink traffic to assist the Hybrid Coordinator accurately assign the TXOP according to the fast changes in the VBR profile. The proposed scheduling algorithm has been evaluated using simulation with different variability level video streams. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm reduces the delay experienced by VBR traffic streams comparable to HCCA scheduler due to the accurate assignment of the TXOP which preserve the channel time for transmission.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1602.0369

QoE in Pull Based P2P-TV Systems: Overlay Topology Design Tradeoff

Abstract—This paper presents a systematic performance anal-ysis of pull P2P video streaming systems for live applications, providing guidelines for the design of the overlay topology and the chunk scheduling algorithm. The contribution of the paper is threefold: 1) we propose a realistic simulative model of the system that represents the effects of access bandwidth heterogeneity, latencies, peculiar characteristics of the video, while still guaranteeing good scalability properties; 2) we propose a new latency/bandwidth-aware overlay topology design strategy that improves application layer performance while reducing the underlying transport network stress; 3) we investigate the impact of chunk scheduling algorithms that explicitly exploit properties of encoded video. Results show that our proposal jointly improves the actual Quality of Experience of users and reduces the cost the transport network has to support. I