Robust image transmission with bidirectional synchronization and hierarchical error correction

We present a novel joint-source and channel image-coding scheme for noisy channel transmission. The proposed scheme consists of two innovative components: (1) intelligent bidirectional synchronization and, (2) layered bit-plane error protection. The bidirectional synchronization is able to recover the coding synchronization when any single or even when two consecutive synchronization codes are corrupted by the channel noise. With synchronized partition, unequal error protection for each bit plane can be designed based on the analysis of bit-plane error sensitivity for compressed image data transmission over noisy channels. Experimental results over extensive channel simulations show that the proposed scheme outperforms the well-known approach proposed by Sherwood and Zeger (see IEEE Signal Processing Lett., vol.4, p.189-91, 1997).