Robust image transmission over energy-constrained time-varying channels using multiresolution joint source-channel coding

We explore joint source-channel coding (JSCC) for time-varying channels using a multiresolution framework for both source coding and transmission via novel multiresolution modulation constellations. We consider the problem of still image transmission over time-varying channels with the channel state information (CSI) available at (1) receiver only and (2) both transmitter and receiver being informed about the state of the channel, and we quantify the effect of CSI availability on the performance. Our source model is based on the wavelet image decomposition, which generates a collection of subbands modeled by the family of generalized Gaussian distributions. We describe an algorithm that jointly optimizes the design of the multiresolution source codebook, the multiresolution constellation, and the decoding strategy of optimally matching the source resolution and signal constellation resolution "trees" in accordance with the time-varying channel and show how this leads to improved performance over existing methods. The real-time operation needs only table lookups. Our results based on a wavelet image representation show that our multiresolution-based optimized system attains gains on the order of 2 dB in the reconstructed image quality over single-resolution systems using channel optimized source coding.