Computation-scalable algorithm for scalable video coding

This paper presents a strategy that efficiently allocates the limited resource and still maintains the coding performance for the spatial scalability of H.264/SVC. An integrated computation-scalable algorithm is proposed on the basis of priority-based mode decision (PBMD) and activity-based motion estimation (ABME). The rate-distortion cost (RD-cost) of base layer is utilized as the priority to decide the mode in the enhancement layer, and the motion vector difference (MVD) in the base layer is employed to determine the search range as well. Through the proposed approach, computation complexity of the enhancement layer could be reduced efficiently and well allocated. A fast algorithm with early termination mechanism is also proposed in this paper. Experimental results demonstrate that the various rate-distortion and time-saving performances with computation scalability are realized.