A content-aware packets priority ordering and marking scheme for H.264 video over diffserv network

Video transmission over Internet can greatly benefit from adapting video content to diffserv network parameters, to better support the application requirements. In this paper, a novel content-aware packet priority ordering and marking scheme is presented for streaming H.264 coded video over differentiated services enabled networks. The scheme takes advantage of flexible macroblock ordering (FMO) coding scheme to group the macroblocks by estimating their contribution to current frame. Then for each video packet, a relative priority index at macroblock level (MB-RPI) is calculated and packets are pre-marked according to the MB-RPI. Consequently, video packets are treated differently when transmitting in a diffserv network. Simulation results shows that our scheme can achieve better video quality comparing to the legacy scheme.