Broadcast/multicast MPEG-2 video over broadband fixed wireless access networks

With the emergence of broadband fixed wireless access networks, there is an increasing interest in providing broadband video services over outdoor wireless networks. We investigate some fundamental issues related to the broadcasting or multicasting of CBR MPEG-2 videos over fixed wireless channels in B-FWANs using FEC strategies. In B-FWANs, high-frequency wireless channels are used and a direct or indirect LOS propagation path is usually required between a transmitter and a receiver. The wireless channel is modeled by a K factor Rician fading model instead of a Rayleigh fading model. The unique characteristics of the physical channel require special consideration at the system design level. In order to evaluate the overall system performance properly, a set of parameters for objective video quality assessment is introduced and used in our simulation studies, including a definition of the objective grade point value, the number of reconstructed frames, and the conventional peak signal-to-noise ratio value. The feasibility of cell interleaving is also addressed. MPEG-2 control information (i.e., the control blocks) plays a critical role in the decoding process and can influence the reconstructed video quality dramatically; special consideration and excess protection should be given to this information. The concept of a new FEC strategy, header redundancy FEC, is introduced to address this issue. In HRFEC, selected important (high-priority) MPEG-2 control blocks (such as sequence header, sequence extensions, and picture header and corresponding extensions) are replicated before transmission, and duplicate copies are transmitted over the wireless link. Our results indicate that HRFEC is a simple, flexible, and effective error control strategy for broadcasting or multicasting MPEG-2 videos over error-prone and time-varying wireless channels.