Irregular Variable Length Coding

In this thesis, we introduce Irregular Variable Length Coding (IrVLC) and investigate its applications, characteristics and performance in the context of digital multimedia broadcast telecommunications. During IrVLC encoding, the multimedia signal is represented using a sequence of concatenated binary codewords. These are selected from a codebook, comprising a number of codewords, which, in turn, comprise various numbers of bits. However, during IrVLC encoding, the multimedia signal is decomposed into particular fractions, each of which is represented using a different codebook. This is in contrast to regular Variable Length Coding (VLC), in which the entire multimedia signal is encoded using the same codebook. The application of IrVLCs to joint source and channel coding is investigated in the context of a video transmission scheme. Our novel video codec represents the video signal using tessellations of Variable-Dimension Vector Quantisation (VDVQ) tiles. These are selected from a codebook, comprising a number of tiles having various dimensions. The selected tessellation of VDVQ tiles is signalled using a corresponding sequence of concatenated codewords from a Variable Length Error Correction (VLEC) codebook. This VLEC codebook represents a specific joint source and channel coding case of VLCs, which facilitates both compression and error correction. However, during video encoding, only particular combinations of the VDVQ tiles will perfectly tessellate, owing to their various dimensions. As a result, only particular sub-sets of the VDVQ codebook and, hence, of the VLEC codebook may be employed to convey particular fractions of the video signal. Therefore, our novel video codec can be said to employ IrVLCs. The employment of IrVLCs to facilitate Unequal Error Protection (UEP) is also demonstrated. This may be applied when various fractions of the source signal have different error sensitivities, as is typical in audio, speech, image and video signals, for example. Here, different VLEC codebooks having appropriately selected error correction capabilities may be employed to encode the particular fractions of the source signal. This approach may be expected to yield a higher reconstruction quality than equal protection in cases where the various fractions of the source signal have different error sensitivities. Finally, this thesis investigates the application of IrVLCs to near-capacity operation using EXtrinsic Information Transfer (EXIT) chart analysis. Here, a number of component VLEC codebooks having different inverted EXIT functions are employed to encode particular fractions of the source symbol frame. We show that the composite inverted IrVLC EXIT function may be obtained as a weighted average of the inverted component VLC EXIT functions. Additionally, EXIT chart matching is employed to shape the inverted IrVLC EXIT function to match the EXIT function of a serially concatenated inner channel code, creating a narrow but still open EXIT chart tunnel. In this way, iterative decoding convergence to an infinitesimally low probability of error is facilitated at near-capacity channel SNRs

Joint source/channel decoding of scalefactors in MPEG-AAC encoded bitstreams

International audienceThis paper describes a bandwidth-efficient method for improved decoding of MPEG-AAC bitstreams when the encoded data are transmitted over a noisy channel. Assuming that the critical part (headers) of each frame has been correctly received, we apply a soft-decoding method to reconstruct the scalefactors, which represent a highly noise-sensitive part of the bitstream. The damaged spectral data are reconstructed using an intra-frame error concealment method. Two methods for soft decoding of scalefactors are described: blind mode and informed mode. In the latter, a very small amount of additional data is included in the bitstream. At medium SNR, this method provides a significant improvement in perceptual signal quality compared to the classical hard-decoding method

Synchronization recovery and state model reduction for soft decoding of variable length codes

Variable length codes exhibit de-synchronization problems when transmitted over noisy channels. Trellis decoding techniques based on Maximum A Posteriori (MAP) estimators are often used to minimize the error rate on the estimated sequence. If the number of symbols and/or bits transmitted are known by the decoder, termination constraints can be incorporated in the decoding process. All the paths in the trellis which do not lead to a valid sequence length are suppressed. This paper presents an analytic method to assess the expected error resilience of a VLC when trellis decoding with a sequence length constraint is used. The approach is based on the computation, for a given code, of the amount of information brought by the constraint. It is then shown that this quantity as well as the probability that the VLC decoder does not re-synchronize in a strict sense, are not significantly altered by appropriate trellis states aggregation. This proves that the performance obtained by running a length-constrained Viterbi decoder on aggregated state models approaches the one obtained with the bit/symbol trellis, with a significantly reduced complexity. It is then shown that the complexity can be further decreased by projecting the state model on two state models of reduced size

Joint source-channel turbo decoding of VLC encoded Markov sources

- Ce papier décrit un algorithme de décodage conjoint pour une chaîne de transmission composée d'une source markovienne, d'un codeur de source et d'un codeur de canal. Le modèle global de la chaîne n'est pas directement manipulable, aussi s'oriente-t-on vers une procédure itérative traitant séparément chaque composant. On s'intéresse notamment aux difficultés induites par les mots de code de longueur variable, et l'on montre qu'un décodage séquentiel des deux premiers composants est optimal

Robust decoding of VLC encoded Markov sources

- Le décodage robuste de codes à longueurs variables (VLC) est un problème conjoint de segmentation et d'estimation du train binaire. Segmentation et estimation robustes du train binaire, en présence de bruit, nécessitent la ré-introduction de redondance dans le flux. Au lieu d'utiliser des codes correcteurs, nous proposons d'introduire la redondance dans le train de symboles, ceci afin d'aider la re-synchronisation du décodeur de VLCs. La procédure revient à étendre certains symboles avec un suffixe. Ces suffixes peuvent avoir une longueur arbitraire (fonction du degré de redondance désiré) et n'ont pas à être reconnus avec une probabilité proche de 1. Ils peuvent être vus comme des points d'ancrage favorisant la vraisemblance des séquences correctement synchronisées et pénalisant les autres

Codes robustes et codes joints source-canal pour transmission multimédia sur canaux mobiles

Some new error-resilient source coding and joint source/channel coding techniquesare proposed for the transmission of multimedia sources over error-prone channels.First, we introduce a class of entropy codes providing unequal error-resilience, i.e.providing some protection to the most sensitive information. These codes are thenextended to exploit the temporal dependencies. A new state model based on the aggregation of some states of the trellis is thenproposed and analyzed for soft source decoding of variable length codes with a lengthconstraint. It allows the weighting of the compromise between the estimation accuracyand the decoding complexity.Next, some paquetization methods are proposed to reduce the error propagationphenomenon of variable length codes.Finally, some re-writing rules are proposed to extend the binary codetree representationof entropy codes. The proposed representation allows in particular the designof codes with improved soft decoding performances.Cette thèse propose des codes robustes et des codes conjoints source/canal pourtransmettre des signaux multimédia sur des canaux bruités. Nous proposons des codesentropiques offrant une résistance intrinsèque aux données prioritaires. Ces codes sontétendus pour exploiter la dépendance temporelle du signal.Un nouveau modèle d’état est ensuite proposé et analysé pour le décodage souplede codes à longueur variable avec une contrainte de longueur. Il permet de réglerfinement le compromis performance de décodage/complexité.Nous proposons également de séparer, au niveau du codage entropique, les étapesde production des mots de codes et de paquétisation. Différentes stratégies de constructionde train binaire sont alors proposées.Enfin, la représentation en arbre binaire des codes entropiques est étendue enconsidérant des règles de ré-écriture. Cela permet en particulier d’obtenir des codesqui offrent des meilleures performances en décodage souple

Optimized Scalable Image and Video Transmission for MIMO Wireless Channels

In this chapter, we focus on proposing new strategies to efficiently transfer a compressed image/video content through wireless links using a multiple antenna technology. The proposed solutions can be considered as application layer physical layer (APP-PHY) cross layer design methods as they involve optimizing both application and physical layers. After a wide state-of-the-art study, we present two main solutions. The first focuses on using a new precoding algorithm that takes into account the image/video content structure when assigning transmission powers. We showed that its results are better than the existing conventional precoders. Second, a link adaptation process is integrated to efficiently assign coding parameters as a function of the channel state. Simulations over a realistic channel environment show that the link adaptation activates a dynamic process that results in a good image/video reconstruction quality even if the channel is varying. Finally, we incorporated soft decoding algorithms at the receiver side, and we showed that they could induce further improvements. In fact, almost 5 dB peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) improvements are demonstrated in the case of transmission over a Rayleigh channel