Transmission of JPEG2000 images over wireless channels with unequal power distribution

This paper proposes a novel approach for robust transmission of JPEG2000 (JP2) images over wireless channels. It relies on using a wavelet transmultiplexer that allows for a proper unequal distribution of the transmission power among JP2 coding units according to their contribution to the decoded image quality. In the proposed system, the JP2 stream is divided into a certain number of packet groups and each group is transmitted through a separate sub-channel at a different rate and power. Packet grouping and power distribution is driven by the native JP2 rate-distortion function. The major strength of the proposed method is the flexibility on assigning a different protection level to each source JP2 packet by selecting the transmission power from a continuous range of possible values. The performance of this technique is evaluated in case of AWGN and Rayleigh channels.