Channel Adaptive Multi-User Scalable Video Streaming with Unequal Erasure Protection

In this paper, we propose a solution to the problem of streaming multiple video sequences in a capacity constrained, error-prone network. This scenario arises in situations such as multiple mobile computers accessing streamed video through a single access point, or multiple cell phone users serviced by a single base-station. Our approach constitutes a rate-constrained distortion-minimized streaming scheme to allocate the appropriate rate for each video stream that achieves minimal distortion without violating the capacity constraint. Moreover, we developed an unequal erasure protection (UXP) scheme that minimizes the protected bitstream rate and the expected packet loss probability for each video frame. Performance evaluations show that this approach delivers an improved decoded video quality and fairer rate-allocation when compared with standard UXP and rate- allocation schemes, specifically in limited capacity and congested channels.