Scalability support in HEVC

A scalability extension design is proposed to the upcoming High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard, to support spatial and SNR scalability. The design attempts to minimize changes needed for the enhancement layer codec from the single layer HEVC codec, re-using existing tools exactly wherever possible. Experimental results are provided for the 2 layer spatial scalability case with 1:2 ratio in each dimension, although the design can be extended to any spatial ratios and to more than 2 layers. Coding gains of up to 24.4% vs. HEVC simulcast coding are shown.