Robust video multicast with joint network coding and video interleaving

In this work, we propose a cross-layer solution to robust video multicast in erasure networks based on random linear network coding (RLNC) in the network layer and video interleaving (VI) in the application layer, and call it the joint RLNC-VI scheme. In the RLNC implementation, we partition one video coding unit (VCU) into several priority levels using scalable properties of H.264/SVC video. Packets from the same priority level of several VCUs form one RLNC generation, and unequal protection is applied to different generations. RLNC provides redundancy for video packets in the network layer and has proved to be useful in a multicast environment. Then, we propose a new packet-level interleaving scheme, called the RLNC-facilitated interleaving scheme, where each received packet corresponds to a new constraint on source packets. As a result, it can facilitate the RLNC decoding at the destination node. Furthermore, we study the problem of optimal interleaving design, which selects the optimal interleaving degree and the optimal redundancy of each generation. The tradeoff between delay and received video quality due to the choice of different VCUs is also examined. It is shown by simulation results that the proposed RLNC-VI scheme outperforms the pure RLNC method for robust video multicast in erasure networks. This can be explained by two reasons. First, the VI scheme distributes the impact of the loss (or erasure) of one VCU into partial data loss over multiple neighboring VCUs. Second, the original video content can be easily recovered with spatial/temporal error concealment (EC) in the joint RLNC-VI scheme.     

一种新的IP网络视频通信丢包错误纠正方案

分组丢失是IP交换网络常见的现象。该文针对下一代网络多媒体通信,提出了一套IP网络抗分组丢失的方案。包括纠删编码、打包和发送以及接收端错误掩盖。与常见的纠删编码相比,该文提出的[9,5,3]码具有构造简单,编解码时间短,纠删能力高的优点。打包和发送方案根据[9,5,3]码的纠删性能对视频数据打包,并以一定顺序发送,提高了纠删码抗突发错误的能力。采用新的视频编码方案H.264所提供的抗误码工具灵活的宏块次序(FMO),对纠删失效的视频数据在解码端进行错误掩盖。     

Distributed Joint Source-Channel Coding of Video Using Raptor Codes

Extending recent works on distributed source coding, this paper considers distributed source-channel coding and targets at the important application of scalable video transmission over wireless networks. The idea is to use a single channel code for both video compression (via Slepian-Wolf coding) and packet loss protection. First, we provide a theoretical code design framework for distributed joint source-channel coding over erasure channels and then apply it to the targeted video application. The resulting video coder is based on a cross-layer design where video compression and protection are performed jointly. We choose Raptor codes - the best approximation to a digital fountain - and address in detail both encoder and decoder designs. Using the received packets together with a correlated video available at the decoder as side information, we devise a new iterative soft-decision decoder for joint Raptor decoding. Simulation results show that, compared to one separate design using Slepian-Wolf compression plus erasure protection and another based on FGS coding plus erasure protection, the proposed joint design provides better video quality at the same number of transmitted packets. Our work represents the first in capitalizing the latest in distributed source coding and near-capacity channel coding for robust video transmission over erasure channels.     

基于高斯消元的BATS码的改进译码算法

BATS码是一种包括外码和内码的纠删码,外码是喷泉码的矩阵形式。内码是网络编码结构,采用随机线性网络编码算法。BATS码的常用译码算法为BP译码算法,但对有限长BATS码,BP译码算法的性能有大幅度的衰减。因此,在计算资源充足的情况下,可以在BP译码器后采用高斯消元算法对BATS码进行译码。采用高斯消元算法时,矩阵满秩则输入数据包可译,反之则不可译。因此,利用当矩阵不满秩时也有部分包可译的特点,识别并将这部分可译包译出,从而提高高斯消元译码器的译码性能。     

Robust multipoint and multi-layered transmission of H.264/SVC with Raptor codes

The scalable extension of the H.264 Advanced Video Coding (AVC) standard called Scalable Video Coding (SVC), or H.264/SVC, provides scalable video streams which are composed by a base layer and one or more enhancement layers. Enhancement layers may improve the temporal, the spatial or the signal-to-noise ratio resolutions of the content represented by the lower layers. One of the applications of this video coding standard is related to point-to-multipoint video distributions in both wired and wireless communication systems, where packet losses contribute to the degradation of the user’s Quality of Experience. Designed for the transmission of data over Binary Erasure Channels (BEC), Raptor codes are a Forward Error Correction (FEC) mechanism that is gaining popularity for Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) applications due to their small decoding complexity and reduced overhead. This paper evaluates the quality enhancements introduced by the integration of several H.264/SVC layers with a Raptor coding protection scheme. Our goal is to improve the distribution of video over loss prone networks in terms of rate-distortion performance by assessing several alternative packetization options and protection schemes.     

Information transmission based on network coding over wireless networks: a survey

Network coding (NC) for wireless local area network has received a lot of attention from researchers. It replaces the traditional methods of video erasure protection. The principal of NC is to combine several packets together before their transmission. Thus, NC is able to provide higher throughput, reliability and efficient transmission. Up to now, many works have been done to ensure the advantages and the robustness of NC against the packet loss and link failures. The performance gains of NC are successfully processed not only for data to increase throughput, but also for video streaming over wireless networks. In this context, this paper surveys and discusses the most popular approaches based on NC of both data and video transmission over wireless network (static or dynamic). Strength and limitations for robust video streaming and data transmission are deeply discussed.     

一种H.264视频流自适应率失真优化编码算法

为了提高编码视频流在丢包网络环境中的抗误码性能,目前比较常用的是采用帧内刷新算法.在率失真框架之内的帧内优化编码刷新算法,则被认为是更为直接和有效的解决办法.在视频编码标准H.264/JVT中采用的就是这种算法.然而由于没有考虑到信道丢包率对编码器端进行仿真解码次数的影响,从而导致在进行率失真优化编码时的计算量较大,编码耗时较长,严重影响了编码器的编码效率.基于以上分析,提出了一种改进的自适应率失真优化编码算法.将H.264标准率失真优化编码算法中计算解码器端视频帧期望失真度的代数平均值算法,改进为加权平均值算法.仿真实验表明,提出的算法可根据信道丢包率和模拟信道状态个数信息来自适应地决定编码器端进行仿真解码计算的次数,从而有效降低H.264标准率失真优化编码算法中的计算冗余和计算复杂度,节省编码耗时.在模拟信道状态个数默认为30个时,本算法最多可节省近55%的编码耗时.     

Hierarchical Optimization of Cascading Error Protection Scheme for H.264 Scalable Video Streaming

Forward error correction (FEC) coding has been shown to offer a feasible solution to fulfill the need for Quality of Service for multimedia streaming over the fluctuant channels, especially in terms of the reduction of end-to-end delay. In this paper, we propose the Dynamic FEC-Distortion Optimization Algorithm to efficiently utilize the network bandwidth for better visual quality by means of hierarchical coding structure with the cascading error protection scheme. The optimization criteria are based on the unequal error protection by taking account of the error drifting problems from both temporal motion compensation and inter-layer prediction of the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC scalable video coding so that the priorities of each video components can be differentiated for the calculation of the distribution of parity packets. It is shown that the cascading error protection scheme makes the hierarchical structure of error erasure code more efficient. Also, the proposed algorithm works particularly well for fast motion videos and the performance does not depend on accurate estimation of packet loss rate.     

用户均匀分布的基于RLNC无线广播系统性能分析

本文分析了基于随机线性网络编码（random linear network coding ,RLNC）的无线广播系统的性能。该系统的一个源节点需要将N个信息包广播给以其为圆心的多个均匀分布用户。通过利用随机几何分析我们推导了该系统中的近似平均传输次数和平均成功译码用户百分比。仿真结果表明,理论近似推导和实际仿真结果十分接近以及RLNC方案相比LT码( Luby Transform codes)方案有很大的性能提升。同时,一个用户接收到N个 RLNC 编码包即可以极高概率恢复出源信息包。      

Erasure coding for reliable adaptive retransmission in wireless broadcast/multicast systems

In this paper, we present new adaptive automatic repeat request (ARQ) schemes for wireless broadcast/multicast combining erasure coding (EC) and packet retransmission. Traditional approaches rely on retransmitting the lost packets in a point-to-point or point-to-multipoint mode. The main idea behind the presented protocols is to retransmit adaptive combinations of the lost packets using EC, which can help several receivers to recover the lost information with fewer retransmission attempts. We propose two versions of EC-based ARQ protocols, and investigate theoretically the corresponding transmission bandwidths in different contexts. We show through simulation results the efficiency of the proposed protocols with respect to conventional ARQ strategies and new published ARQ works for broadcast/multicast. Finally, a new sliding window NACK feedback policy is presented for the case of a high number of receivers to avoid the feedback implosion problem.     

基于自适应随机线性网络编码的优先级调度方案

该文针对无线多播网络中基于随机线性网络编码(RLNC)调度方案计算复杂度高,且网络传输性能易受反馈信息影响等问题,提出一种基于自适应RLNC的优先级调度方案(PSARLNC)。该方案结合视频流的特征采用适应多播的RLNC,相较于传统RLNC计算复杂度降低。经过初始传输后,在后续数据恢复阶段,综合考虑数据包剩余传输时隙,选取目的节点增益最大传输方式,最大化数据传输。同时,各中继节点根据接收情况,构建各自解码概率值,并以此为依据确定调度优先级并完成转发,自适应调整各节点传输,有效减少对反馈信息的依赖。仿真结果表明该方案与完全反馈方案性能十分接近,且在减小计算复杂度和降低对反馈信息依赖同时保证了较好的性能。     

A low-complexity rate allocation algorithm for joint source-channel video coding

The problem of enabling robust video transmission over lossy networks has become increasingly important because of the growing interest in video delivery over unreliable channels such as wireless networks. The more the coding process relies on an intensive use of prediction to improve the coding gain, the more the reconstructed sequence proves to be sensitive to information losses. As a matter of fact, it is necessary to introduce some redundant data in order to increase the robustness of the coded bit stream. A possible solution can be found filling a matrix structure with RTP packets and applying a Forward Error Correction (FEC) code on its rows. However, the matrix size and the chosen FEC code affect the performance of the coding system. The paper proposes a novel adaptation technique that tunes the amount of redundant information included in the packet stream and differs from previously proposed solutions since it relies on the percentage of null quantized transform coefficients in place of the activity or the Mean Square Error (MSE). This strategy is then integrated in a joint source-channel coder rate allocation algorithm that shares the available bits between the H.264/AVC coder and the channel coder according to the significance of the frame in the decoding process. Experimental results show that the presented approach significantly improves the quality of the reconstructed sequences at the decoder with respect to activity-based strategies and requires a low computational complexity.     

Contention-based MAC protocols with erasure coding for wireless data networks

Contention-based medium access control (MAC) protocol is a key component for the success of wireless data networks. Conventional random access protocols like ALOHA and Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA) suffer from packet collision which leads to low throughput. Aimed at improving the throughput performance, we propose to integrate erasure coding with contention-based MAC protocols for recovering collided packets. To demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach, we focus on combining erasure coding with slotted ALOHA and slotted non-persistent CSMA in this paper. The performances of the resulting protocols are evaluated by both analytical model and simulation. Simulation results match very well with analytical results and show that the system throughput is increased for low to medium traffic loading. Packet loss ratio is also improved considerably with our scheme when the maximum number of packet retransmission times is limited. However, the delay for our scheme is higher due to the longer waiting time in our scheme for recovering collided packets. It is also shown that delay can be significantly reduced if we choose appropriate coding parameters though throughput will be sacrificed.     

Priority-Aware Packet Pre-marking for DiffServ Architecture Based on H.264/SVC Video Stream Structure

The H264/SVC codec allows for generation of hierarchical video streams. In the stream of this type video data belonging to different layers have different priority depending on their importance to the quality of the video and the decoding process. This creates new demands on the mechanisms of packet marking, and thus new challenges for the policy guaranteeing QoS parameters, such as those defined in the DiffServ architecture. Therefore, mechanisms of the traffic engineering used in the DiffServ network should, as far as possible, take into account internal distribution of priorities inside video streams. This may be achieved by implementing an appropriate method for packet pre-marking. The paper describes the Weighted Priority Pre-marking (WPP) algorithm for priority-aware SVC video streaming over a DiffServ network. Our solution takes into account the relative importance of the Network Abstraction Layer Units. It also does not require any changes in the implementation of the DiffServ marker algorithm. The results presented confirm that video transmission in the DiffServ domain, based on the WPP packet pre-marking, can provide better perceived video quality than the standard (best effort) streaming of multi-layered SVC video. In addition, a comparison with the transmission of the same video content encoded with the H264/AVC codec also points to the superiority of our proposed method.

     

Video-aware opportunistic network coding over wireless networks

In this paper, we study video streaming over wireless networks with network coding capabilities. We build upon recent work, which demonstrated that network coding can increase throughput over a broadcast medium, by mixing packets from different flows into a single packet, thus increasing the information content per transmission. Our key insight is that, when the transmitted flows are video streams, network codes should be selected so as to maximize not only the network throughput but also the video quality. We propose video-aware opportunistic network coding schemes that take into account both the decodability of network codes by several receivers and the importance and deadlines of video packets. Simulation results show that our schemes significantly improve both video quality and throughput. This work is a first step towards content-aware network coding.     

Frame distortion estimation for unequal error protection methods in scalable video coding (SVC)

In many multimedia applications, coded video is transmitted over error prone heterogeneous networks. Because of the predictive mechanism used in video coding, transmission error would propagate temporally and spatially and would result in significant quality losses. In order to address this problem, different error resilience methods have been proposed. One of the techniques, which is commonly used in video streaming, is unequal error protection (UEP) of scalable video coding (SVC). In this technique, different independent layers of an SVC stream are protected differently and based on their importance by using forward error correction (FEC) codes. Accurately analyzing the importance or utility of each video part is a critical component and would lead to a better protection and higher quality of the received video. Calculation of the utility is usually based on multiple decoding of sub-bitstreams and is highly computationally complex. In this work, we propose an accurate low complexity utility estimation technique that can be used in different applications. This technique estimates the utility of each network abstraction layer (NAL) by considering the error propagation to future frames. We utilize this method in an UEP framework with the scalable extension of H.264/AVC codec and it achieves almost the same performance as highly complex estimation techniques (an average loss of 0.05 dB). Furthermore, we propose a low delay version of this technique that can be used in delay constrained application. The estimation accuracy and performance of our proposed technique are studied extensively.