Toward energy-efficient error control in 3G broadcast video

Energy use is a key issue in battery-operated mobile devices. In order to extend battery life, mobiles showing video often allow a controlled drop in quality, which is tolerable when the shortcomings of a small screen are combined with the imperfections of visual perception. Both energy consumption and video quality are affected by the Reed-Solomon codes and interleaving levels used in 3G video broadcast services. We explore the effect of these elements of MAC-layer error control, and show how they can be manipulated to save energy while maintaining acceptable video quality through a controlled reduction in the number of parity symbols in the Reed-Solomon code and the level of interleaving.