Multiple Description Wavelet Video Coding Employing a New Tree Structure

We describe a multiple description (MD) video coding technique using 3D-set partitioning in hierarchical tree algorithm (3D-SPIHT). Multiple description coding (MDC) is a way of coding video information into multiple bitstreams and is useful in a number of scenarios including peer-to-peer video streaming and video transmission over error-prone networks. We propose a modified tree structure for 3D-SPIHT that is more efficient for MD coding. We also propose a branch-pruning technique to generate multiple descriptions. We then show how rate-distortion optimization can be incorporated into the MDC framework to develop an efficient MD video coding system. Experimental results show that the proposed MD system achieves significant improvement in performance compared to existing methods.