Rate-distortion optimization for stereoscopic video streaming with unequal error protection

We consider an error-resilient stereoscopic streaming system that uses an H.264-based multiview video codec and a rateless Raptor code for recovery from packet losses. One aim of the present work is to suggest a heuristic methodology for modeling the end-to-end rate-distortion (RD) characteristic of such a system. Another aim is to show how to make use of such a model to optimally select the parameters of the video codec and the Raptor code to minimize the overall distortion. Specifically, the proposed system models the RD curve of video encoder and performance of channel codec to jointly derive the optimal encoder bit rates and unequal error protection (UEP) rates specific to the layered stereoscopic video streaming. We define analytical RD curve modeling for each layer that includes the interdependency of these layers. A heuristic analytical model of the performance of Raptor codes is also defined. Furthermore, the distortion on the stereoscopic video quality caused by packet losses is estimated. Finally, analytical models and estimated single-packet loss distortions are used to minimize the end-to-end distortion and to obtain optimal encoder bit rates and UEP rates. The simulation results clearly demonstrate the significant quality gain against the nonoptimized schemes

Distributed Joint Source-Channel Coding With Copula-Function-Based Correlation Modeling for Wireless Sensors Measuring Temperature

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) deployed for temperature monitoring in indoor environments call for systems that perform efficient compression and reliable transmission of the measurements. This is known to be a challenging problem in such deployments, as highly efficient compression mechanisms impose a high computational cost at the encoder. In this paper, we propose a new distributed joint source-channel coding (DJSCC) solution for this problem. Our design allows for efficient compression and error-resilient transmission, with low computational complexity at the sensor. A new Slepian-Wolf code construction, based on non-systematic Raptor codes, is devised that achieves good performance at short code lengths, which are appropriate for temperature monitoring applications. A key contribution of this paper is a novel Copula-function-based modeling approach that accurately expresses the correlation amongst the temperature readings from colocated sensors. Experimental results using a WSN deployment reveal that, for lossless compression, the proposed Copula-function-based model leads to a notable encoding rate reduction (of up to 17.56%) compared with the state-of-the-art model in the literature. Using the proposed model, our DJSCC system achieves significant rate savings (up to 41.81%) against a baseline system that performs arithmetic entropy encoding of the measurements. Moreover, under channel losses, the transmission rate reduction against the state-of-the-art model reaches 19.64%, which leads to energy savings between 18.68% to 24.36% with respect to the baseline system