Multiple description scalable coding for video streaming

Scalable video coding and multiple description video coding are two effective approaches to deal with the problems posed by video streaming over error-prone packet switched networks. In this paper, a multiple description scalable video coder based on the scalable video extension of H.264/AVC is presented. The proposed method downsamples the residual data of the spatial base layer to generate two descriptions. The produced descriptions have the same enhancement layers and the same motion vectors. Therefore, drift is avoided in case one description gets lost and the enhancement layers are received. Performance is evaluated through simulation experiments with different packet loss rates. The experimental results show that our proposed scheme achieves improvements of 3 dB or more when compared to single description scalable video coding at 10% packet loss rate.