Receiver driven layered multicast with layer-aware forward error correction

A wide range of different capabilities and connection qualities typically characterizes receivers of mobile television services. Receiver driven layered multicast (RDLM) offers an efficient way for providing different capabilities over such a broadcast channel. Scalable video coding (SVC) allows for the transmission of multiple video qualities within one media stream. Using SVC generates a video bit stream with various inter layer dependencies due to references between the layers. This work proposes a layer-aware forward error correction (L-FEC) approach in combination with SVC. L-FEC increases robustness of the more important layers by generating protection across layers following existing dependencies of the media stream. The L-FEC is integrated as an extension of a Raptor FEC implementation in a DVB-H broadcast system. It is shown by experimental results that L-FEC outperforms traditional UEP protection schemes.