Low-Delay Low-Complexity Bandwidth-Constrained Wireless Video Transmission Using SVC Over MIMO Systems

We propose an efficient strategy for the transmission of scalable video over multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless systems. In this paper, we use the latest scalable H.264 codec (SVC), which provides combined temporal, quality and spatial scalability. At the transmitter, we estimate the decoded video distortion for given channel conditions taking into account the effects of quantization, packet loss and error concealment. The proposed scalable decoder distortion algorithm offers low delay and low complexity. The performance of this method is validated using experimental results. In our proposed system, we use a MIMO system with orthogonal space-time block codes (O-STBC) that provides spatial diversity and guarantees independent transmission of different symbols within the block code. The bandwidth constrained allocation problem considered here is simplified and solved for one O-STBC symbol at a time. Furthermore, we take the advantage of the hierarchical structure of SVC to attain the optimal solution for each group of pictures (GOP) of the video sequence. We incorporate the estimated decoder distortion to optimally select the application layer parameter, i.e., quantization parameter (QP), and physical layer parameters, i.e., channel coding rate and modulation type for wireless video transmission.      

Dynamic Resource Allocation for MGS H.264/AVC Video Transmission Over Link-Adaptive Networks

In this paper, we address the problem of efficiently allocating network resources to support multiple scalable video streams over a constrained wireless channel. We present a resource allocation framework that jointly optimizes the operation of the link adaptation scheme in the physical layer (PHY), and that of a traffic control module in the network or medium access control (MAC) layer in multirate wireless networks, while satisfying bandwidth/capacity constraints. Multirate networks, such as IEEE 802.16 or IEEE 802.11, adjust the PHY coding and modulation schemes to maintain the reliability of transmission under varying channel conditions. Higher reliability is achieved at the cost of reduced PHY bit-rate which in turn necessitates a reduction in video stream bit-rates. The rate reduction for scalable video is implemented using a traffic control module. Conventional solutions operate unaware of the importance and loss tolerance of data and drop the higher layers of scalable video altogether. In this paper, we consider medium grain scalable (MGS) extension of H.264/AVC video and develop new rate and distortion models that characterize the coded bitstream. Performance evaluations show that our proposed framework results in significant gains over existing schemes in terms of average video PSNR that can reach 3 dB in some cases for different channel SNRs and different bandwidth budgets.      

面向MIMO多跳无线网络的多用户视频传输优化方法

MIMO(multi-input multi-output)作为一种有效提高无线信道可靠性和带宽的新兴技术,已在无线网络中得到广泛应用.但是,如何利用MIMO在多跳无线网络中为多用户提供高质量视频服务,尚未得到广泛关注.多跳无线链路之间的共信道干扰是需要解决的关键问题.提出一种面向多跳无线网络的多用户视频传输方法,利用链路选择、MIMO的空间复用和空间分集等特点,减少链路间的共信道干扰,最大化多用户的平均视频传输质量.通过对链路选择和天线分组进行建模,将上述传输策略抽象成一个最优化问题,该问题是一个NP-hard问题.为了降低求解复杂度,引入遗传算法来求解链路选择问题.该算法采用基因遗传“优胜劣汰”的特性,在保证性能的同时,大幅度降低了求解复杂度.另外,由于遗传算法中每条“染色体”的“优劣”与天线分组策略有关,因此结合可伸缩视频的失真模型,将天线分组问题转化为一个标准的0/1背包问题,并在搜索时采用深度优先和分支限界技术,进一步降低算法复杂度.实验结果表明,所提出的链路选择算法和天线分组算法均能显著提高用户接收视频的质量.     

ALAVIT: An adaptive layered video transmission for wireless OFDM channels

It is well-known that the layered transmission for video bit-streams generated by a layered coding can gracefully accommodate the receivers' heterogeneity in wireless networks. In this paper, we propose a new layered video transmission scheme employing the subcarrier allocation based on the wireless channel characteristics of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) physical (PHY) layer, leading to an adaptive layered video transmission (ALAVIT). In our scheme, scalable video coding (SVC) is exploited to generate the layered video bit-streams; and the resulting base layer (BL) and enhancement layer (EL) bits are modulated differently to obtain their individual wireless symbols. According to the estimated channel characteristics described by the subcarrier channel gains of a connected wireless receiver, subcarriers with good channel quality are allocated to BL symbols for a better protection of these more important bits. In this unicast case, our ALAVIT scheme is demonstrated to provide a much better performance as compared to the state-of-the-art PHY layer techniques such as s-mod and MixCast. This framework is then generalized from unicast to multicast where the problem is formulated into an optimization involving the average bit-error-rate (BER) over all connected receivers. While the complexity of solving this problem remains extremely high for the current OFDM case of 64 or even more subcarriers, we demonstrate by using a case study of 8 subcarriers that the optimal solution indeed offers a better performance than the heuristic solutions.     

Joint video adaptation and erasure code for video broadcast in wireless networks

Advances in wireless access technologies such as WiMax and LTE have accelerated the development of wireless video applications.Though existing erasure codes are designed for wireless data broadcasting,their potential can only be realized for wireless video broadcasting if the distortions associated with video packets and their complex decoding dependency are taken into consideration.In this paper,we propose the greedy video erasure code(GVEC)to minimize average video distortion by accounting for the temporal scalable decoding dependency among video frames e.g.I,P and B frames in MPEG.GVEC is a greedy algorithm and sufers from high computational complexity.For practical implementation,we have designed the joint video adaptation and erasure code(JVEC)with lower complexity,which can generate erasure codes on the fly to guarantee the decoding of important video frames.Simulation results show that the performance of JVEC is very close to that of GVEC,and is superior to that of existing erasure codes.Our results also show the existence of a performance tradeof between video distortion and video packet throughput.     

面向无线网络的可伸缩视频编码传输策略*

针对现有面向无线网络的可伸缩视频编码(Scalable Video Coding, SVC)传输策略未能充分考虑失真和能耗的问题,提出了一种基于失真和节点能耗最小化的SVC传输策略。该策略在分析SVC的编码失真、传输过程中的丢包失真的基础上,计算了接收端的视频失真总和;通过计算SVC传输系统的功率,对无线网络中的节点能耗进行了分析。然后综合考虑了能耗、传输时间及质量要求,将SVC的传输策略转化为一个优化问题,进而得到最优的SVC编码参数,在获得较优视频质量的前提下实现了SVC的可靠传输。仿真实验结果表明,与目前典型的SVC传输策略相比,该策略不但有效降低了SVC传输过程中的平均失真,而且在相同的能量消耗水平下,获得了更好的视频质量。     

IEEE 802.11e网络中传输可分级视频流的调度方案

在保证可分级视频流延时要求的情况下,为了有效提高其在无线网络中传输的带宽利用率,提出了一种新的调度方案。该方案利用可分级视频流的分解特性以及不同的流采用不同的调度周期来提高带宽利用率。数值结果表明该方案非常有效,特别是当物理层传输速率较大的时候,其有效性更加明显。     

Packet loss resilience using unequal forward error correction assignment for video transmission over communication networks

Forward error correction (FEC) methods have been developed for packet loss resilience in application layer for real-time video transmission over communication networks. In this paper, an efficient packet loss resilience method is proposed using closed form solution for unequal FEC assignment based on a new packet distortion model. We first derive the packet distortion model by investigating the error concealment property and error propagation effect in H.264. To select the source and channel rate minimizing the overall distortion, we present a model-based rate allocation algorithm using the packet distortion model and rate-distortion function. Then we propose the closed form solution for unequal FEC assignment, which uses the packet distortion model and considers channel status information. Simulation results show that the proposed method gives substantial improvement for the received video quality in packet-lossy Internet and wireless network environments, while it requires much less computational complexity compared to the previous scheme.     

提高MIMO信道BER性能的干扰对齐方案

为提高多输入多输出(MIMO)X信道的比特误码率(BER)性能,提出一种干扰对齐方案。在发送端将数据按照Alamouti编码方案重复发送,在接收端通过重新配置天线工作模式改变信道系数,构成具有正交结构的等效信道矩阵,通过矩阵运算消除干扰,并采用低复杂度的PIC群译码算法进行译码。仿真结果验证了该方案的有效性。     

MIMO信道在不同条件下的容量分析

对影响多输入多输出(MIMO)信道容量的因素进行分析研究有助于未来无线传感器网络的组建与优化。假设信道系数不变,给出了发射端不同功率分配方案对信道容量的影响并进行了对比,通过实验仿真可知,注水算法对信道容量是最优的,此结论与理论分析相吻合,但其运算复杂度较高。推导了等功率分配方案在低信噪比时信道容量的近似表达式,并通过实验仿真与理论值进行了比较,其运算量大大降低,且在低信噪比时逼近理论值。假设MIMO信道矩阵随机分布,对影响信道容量的天线相关性进行了分析与仿真;比较了在不同天线配置下,遍历容量和中断容量的变化趋势,结论有助于组网时根据相关要求选择适宜的天线数目。     

Content-aware optimization on rate-distortion and network traffic for scalable video multicast networks

This paper aims to optimize the content-aware prioritization of scalable video multicast, which is coupled with multipath streaming and network coding based routing. It constructs multiple layer distribution meshes for the scalable video stream to minimize the total video distortion at all the receivers, determines the base layer meshes with minimum costs to maintain application-layer QoS and the layer synchronization of SVC streaming, and improves the network throughput by encouraging path-overlapping transmissions and thus allowing bandwidth sharing among different receivers for the same video layer by utilizing network coding. The targeted problem is formulated into a minimization programming in which the quality variation between layers, the transmission cost of the base layer, as well as the efficient resource utilization are jointly considered. By decomposition and dual approach, the global convex problem is solved by a two-level decentralized iterative algorithm. The implementation of the distributed algorithm is discussed with regard to the communication overhead, and the convergence performance is validated by numerical experiments. Packet-level simulations demonstrate that the proposed algorithm could approximately achieve the maximum flow rates determined by Max-Flow Min-Cut Theorem and benefit the overall received video quality.     

无线传感器网络MAC层节能广播协议

在无线传感器网络中,使节点休眠是一种有效的节能方式。很多较新的MAC协议都采用定期休眠的机制进行节能,如B-MAC、VPCC、X-MAC、A-MAC等。这些协议并未针对广播进行设计,使得发送广播需要消耗较多能量,而且易于发生隐藏节点引起的冲突。提出了适用于休眠传感器网络的节能广播协议。该方法中广播报文以随机间隔进行重传,能够保证异步休眠的节点接收到广播数据;在产生隐藏节点冲突问题时,随机间隔的机制能够使相互干扰的报文较快分离,降低报文冲突的干扰。通过NS-2模拟,验证了广播协议的节能性和高效性。     

Joint rate and cooperative MIMO scheme optimization for uniform energy distribution in Wireless Sensor Networks

An energy efficient adaptive rate cooperative MIMO selection scheme is proposed for uniform load distribution in the cluster based wireless sensor networks. The intrinsic data flow direction in multi-hop cluster based sensor networks causes uneven load distribution in the network. The transit clusters and the clusters near the base station carry more network traffic than the other clusters. Cooperative MIMO can artistically reduce the per bit energy consumption, Space–Time Block Codes are designed to achieve maximum diversity for a given number of transmit and receive antennas with very simple decoding algorithm. In radio fading channel, STBC require less transmission energy than SISO technique for the same Bit Error Rate and can be employed practically in Wireless Sensor Networks by using the cooperative MIMO scheme. Considering Alamouti and Tarokh Space–Time Block Codes, the number of antennas at both the transmission and the reception sides are selected with respect to the cluster load. The crude energy consumption per cluster then refined through adaptive rate transmission. It has been shown that the load based joint adaptive selection of rate and cooperative nodes in clusters renders uniform energy consumption in the network.     

Cross-Layer Packetization and Retransmission Strategies for Delay-Sensitive Wireless Multimedia Transmission

Existing wireless networks provide dynamically varying resources with only limited support for the quality of service required by the bandwidth-intense, loss-tolerant and delay-sensitive multimedia applications. This variability of resources does not significantly impact delay insensitive data transmission (e.g., file transfers), but has considerable consequences for multimedia applications. Recently, the research focus has been to adapt existing algorithms and protocols at the lower layers of the protocol stack to better support multimedia transmission applications and conversely, to modify application layer solutions to cope with the varying wireless networks resources. In this paper, we show that significant improvements in wireless multimedia performance can be obtained by deploying a joint application-layer adaptive packetization and prioritized scheduling and MAC-layer retransmission strategy. We deploy a state-of-the-art wavelet coder for the compression of the video data that enables on-the-fly adaptation to changing channel conditions and inherent prioritization of the video bitstream. We pose the cross-layer problem as a distortion minimization given delay constraints and derive analytical solutions by modifying existing joint source-channel coding theory aimed at fulfilling rate, rather than delay, constraints. We also propose real-time algorithms that explicitly consider the available information about previously transmitted packets. The obtained results show significant improvements in terms of video quality as opposed to ad-hoc optimizations currently deployed, while the complexity associated with performing this optimization in real time, i.e., at transmission time, is limited     

An End-to-End Embedded Approach for Multicast/Broadcast of Scalable Video over Multiuser CDMA Wireless Networks

We investigate an embedded multicast/broadcast approach for transport of digital video over spread-spectrum code-division multiple access (CDMA) cellular networks. Previous work has shown that the incorporation of a scalable source coding scheme with multiresolution modulation provides a promising design paradigm for the practical realization of the information-theoretic performance predictions originally developed by Cover, which demonstrated that optimal multicast/broadcast performance could be achieved by an embedded transmission scheme. Hence, the major technical challenge associated with the design of an end-to-end embedded multicast/broadcast system is how to match an embedded modulation constellation with a scalable source coding scheme. In this work, taking into consideration both the interference-limited and bandwidth-limited characteristics of a CDMA system, we provide a cross-layer approach incorporating adaptive power allocation and channel coding strategies and effectively match a discrete cosine transform based scalable motion-compensated video encoder to an embedded multiresolution modulation scheme to simultaneously deliver a basic quality-of-service (QoS) to less capable receivers while maximizing both the QoS for more capable receivers and the system capacity. We demonstrate the efficacy of this approach using the ITU-T H.263+ video scalable hybrid coder, although the approach is generally extensible to other scalable coding schemes as well     

On the exploitation of CDF based wireless scheduling

Channel-aware scheduling strategies – such as the CDF scheduler (CS) algorithm – provide an effective mechanism for utilizing the channel data rate for improving throughput performance in wireless data networks by exploiting channel fluctuations. A highly desired property of such a scheduling strategy is that its algorithm is stable, in the sense that no user has incentive “cheating” the algorithm in order to increase his/hers channel share (on the account of others). Considering a single user we show that no such user can increase his/hers channel share by misreporting the channel capacity. In contrast, considering a group of users, we present a scheme by which coordination allows them to gain permanent increase in both their time slots share and in their throughput at the expense of others, by misreporting their rates. We show that for large populations consisting of regular and coordinated users in equal numbers, the ratio of allocated time slots between a coordinated and a regular user converges to e − 1 ≈ 1.7. Our scheme targets the very fundamental principle of CS (as opposed to just attacking implementation aspects), which bases its scheduling decisions on the Cumulative Distribution Function (CDF) of the channel rates reported by users. Our scheme works both for the continuous channel spectrum and the discrete channel spectrum versions of the problem. Finally, we outline a modified CDF scheduler immune to such attacks.     

Error robust scalable audio streaming over wireless IP networks

Streaming high-fidelity audio over wireless Internet protocol (IP) networks is a challenging task because the networks present not only packet losses, but also residual bit errors. These losses and errors have severe adverse effect on the compressed audio bitstream. To solve this problem, this paper introduces error resilience in conjunction with error protection for scalable audio streaming over wireless networks. Specifically, error resilience is achieved by performing bitstream data partitioning and reversible variable length coding in the audio coder. Error protection is provided by layered product channel code to simultaneously handle packet losses and residual bit errors. Both the row and column codes of the product code provide unequal error protection for different layers of the audio bitstream by considering the characteristics of the scalable audio. Rate-distortion optimization is performed to determine the best source-channel coding tradeoff that minimizes the average expected end-to-end distortion. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed approach.     

Block-level packet recovery with network coding for wireless reliable multicast

Reliable multicast, the lossless dissemination of data from one sender to a group of receivers, has a wide range of important applications in wireless networks. In this paper, we are interested in the reliable single-hop wireless multicast. As the wireless channel is inherently error prone, it is challenging to achieve high channel utilization in reliable wireless multicast. Most schemes proposed by now for reliable single-hop wireless multicast share the same weakness in that an entire frame will be retransmitted even if it has single error bit. To alleviate this problem, this paper presents an efficient reliable multicast scheme based on block-level ARQ and network coding technique. The new scheme breaks the data stream into blocks and retransmits only erroneous blocks (rather than the entire corrupted frame), where the novel network coding technique is further adopted to minimize the total number of block retransmissions. The theoretical analysis and simulation are conducted to demonstrate the performance of the new scheme and also some typical available schemes in terms of their bandwidth efficiency. The simulation and theoretical results indicate that new reliable wireless multicast scheme can significantly enhance the channel utilization, especially in the scenarios where bit error rate is high and the number of receivers is large.     

基于协同分集的无线传感网络路由与信道分析

协同分集是一种新近提出的空域分集技术,它使得终端之间可以共享彼此的天线,为实现多输入多输出(MIMO)提供了有效的方式,适合用于无线Ad hoc网络和无线传感网络中,成为研究热点.在分析协同分集技术的基础上,针对无线传感网络的特点,分析了传感网络中多跳路由算法与协同分集路由算法,给出网络的等效信道模型,并由此讨论使用协同分集对网络能源消耗的影响,讨论了基于协同分集的无线传感网络的实现.分析结果表明,协同分集在无线传感网络中具有较好的应用价值.     

Adaptive residual-based distributed compressed sensing for soft video multicasting over wireless networks

Recently, multicasting of video signals has become a useful technology in wireless networks, in which the main challenge is to scalably serve multiple receivers that have different channel characteristics. In this paper, we propose an adaptive residual-based distributed compressed-sensing scheme for soft video multicast (ARDCS-cast). At the encoder, we first adaptively determine if a block in a non-reference frame should be measured directly or predictively during compressed-sensing. The resulting adaptive measurements from non-reference frames are then packeted together with the measurements of the reference frames. We further derive the optimal power allocation scheme for the measurements from each frame within each packet. The packets are then transmitted over the wireless channel. At the decoder, the receivers with different channel characteristics obtain different numbers of packets and reconstruct videos with different quality. Experimental results show that the proposed ARDCS-cast is more effective than the state-of-the-art SoftCast-2D, SoftCast-3D and DCS-cast schemes in both unicast and multicast scenarios.