Loss-Compensated Reference Frame Optimization for Multi-Path Video Streaming

Recent video coding standards such as H. 264 offer the flexibility to select reference frames during motion estimation for predicted frames. In this paper, by tracking loss compensation during distortion minimization, we improve upon an earlier proposal to jointly select reference frame, level of QoS and transmission path for each video frame in a multi-path streaming scenario. An algorithm that efficiently calculates the loss compensation value of an earlier correctly decodeable frame during error concealment is presented. Results show significant streaming quality improvement when loss compensation is used.