3D dual-tree discrete wavelet transform based multiple description video coding

A 3D dual-tree discrete wavelet transform (DT-DWT) based multiple description video coding algorithm is proposed to combat the transmitting error or packet loss due to Internet or wireless network channel failure. Each description of the proposed multiple description coding scheme consists of a base layer and an enhancement layer. First, the input image sequence is encoded by a standard H.264 encoder in low bit rate to form the base layer, which is then duplicated to each description. Second, the difference between the reconstructed base layer and the input image sequence is encoded by a 3D dual-tree wavelet encoder to produce four coefficient trees. After noise-shaping, these four trees are partitioned into two groups, individually forming enhancement layers of two descriptions. Since the 3D DT-DWT equips 28 directional subbands, the enhancement layer can be coded without motion estimation. The plenty of directional selectivity of DT-DWT solves the mismatch problem and improves the coding efficiency. If all descriptions are available in the receiver, a high quality video can be reconstructed by a central decoder. If only one description is received, a side decoder can be used to reconstruct the source with acceptable quality. Simulation results have shown that the quality of reconstructed video by the proposed algorithm is superior to that by the state-of-the-art multiple description video coding methods.