Error protection for progressive image transmission over memoryless and fading channels

A product channel code is proposed to protect progressively compressed and packetized image data that is transmitted across noisy channels. Across packets, the product code is composed of Reed-Solomon codes. Within packets, the product code uses the concatenation of a rate compatible punctured convolutional code and an error detecting parity check code. The benefits include flexibility in terms of delay, the ability to easily adapt the level of protection based on importance (i.e., unequal error protection), and scalable decoding complexity. The system outperforms the best known image coders for memoryless channels and performs well on fading channels.