Performance of the wavelet domain diversity method for image transmission over Rayleigh fading channels

A wavelet domain diversity combining method to combat errors during wireless image transmission has been presented recently. For images represented in the wavelet domain, diversity is used to obtain multiple data streams corresponding to the transmitted image at the receiver. These individual image data streams are combined to form a composite image with higher perceptual quality. The SPIHT (set partitioning in hierarchical trees) algorithm is used for image compression, and diversity combining methods for the compressed images exploit the characteristics of the wavelet transform. For these images, unequal error protection is employed in conjunction with diversity combining. Performance of this scheme over Rayleigh fading channels is evaluated in this paper. Simulation results demonstrate that the quality of the received image can be significantly improved.