Network-based adaptation for MPEG-4 multicast video delivery

The ISO MPEG-4 standard enhances the traditional concept of video sequence and proposes a synchronized set of visual objects organized in a flexible way. The video delivery according to this new paradigm results in a challenging new bit-allocation, rate control, and network-based adaptation problem, which have to satisfy complex application requirements. In this paper, we propose two network-based, application-dependent, adaptation algorithms for MPEG-4 video delivery over a time-varying bandwidth availability networks. The first algorithm, namely layer-based priority (LBP), maintains the best possible quality for each object constituting the video. The second algorithm, called object-based priority (OBP), guarantees the best possible quality for the most important object even if it coarsely degrades the less important objects of the video.