Robust EZW image transmission scheme using distributed-alamouti codes in relay networks

A robust image transmission scheme deploying distributed-Alamouti space-time code (STC) over wireless relay networks is proposed. Specifically, we propose a cross-layer design combining application, networking, and physical layer to enhance the quality of multimedia data over error-prone wireless channels. At the application layer, a coded image sequence based on the wavelet transform is divided into two priorities. The higher priority contains the most significant information of image and the lower priority conveys less important information. At the physical layer, two pre-assigned relays cooperate to form a distributed-Alamouti code which help the source to transmit the low priority sequence of the image over error-prone wireless channels. At the networking layer, among the whole relay nodes in the networks we select two relay nodes which provides the maximum signal-to-noise ratio to convey the higher priority. With this strategy, we implicitly achieve unequal error protection for image transmission without controlling power or varying modulation and coding at the transmitter at the expense of increasing network's overhead (i.e. feedback information). The selection of relays needs limited feedback, hence, enabling our proposed scheme feasible in practical applications. Analytical and simulation results are provided to verify our proposal. It has been shown that the image quality is remarkably enhanced in terms of objective quality using the proposed scheme compared to the conventional transmission schemes.