Reducing video-quality fluctuations for streaming scalable video using unequal error protection, retransmission, and interleaving

Forward error correction based multiple description (MD-FEC) transcoding for transmitting embedded bitstream over the packet erasure networks has been extensively studied in the past. In the existing work, a single embedded source bitstream, e.g., the bitstream of a group of pictures (GOP) encoded using three-dimensional set partitioning in hierarchical trees is optimally protected unequal error protection (UEP) in the rate-distortion sense. However, most of the previous work on transmitting embedded video using MD-FEC assumed that one GOP is transmitted only once, and did not consider the chance of retransmission. This may lead to noticeable video quality variations due to varying channel conditions. In this paper, a novel window-based packetization scheme is proposed, which combats bursty packet loss by combining the following three techniques: UEP, retransmission, and GOP-level interleaving. In particular, two retransmission mechanisms, namely segment-wise retransmission and byte-wise retransmission, are proposed based on different types of receiver feedback. Moreover, two levels of rate allocations are introduced: intra-GOP rate allocation minimizes the distortion of individual GOP; while inter-GOP rate allocation intends to reduce video quality fluctuations by adaptively allocating bandwidth according to video signal characteristics and client buffer status. In this way, more consistent video quality can be achieved under various packet loss probabilities, as demonstrated by our experimental results.