Improving the performance of wireless H.264 video broadcasting through a cross-layer design

In a wireless video broadcasting service, number of users receiving the service and the average video quality of the received stream have to be maximized for improving the system performance. To solve this problem optimally, one may adjust parameters at the physical and the application layers in a cross-layer fashion while utilizing the characteristics of the video that is being transmitted. In this paper, we propose a multi-objective optimized, cross-layer video broadcasting scheme for a wireless system capable of supporting a multitude of transmission data-rates using the H.264/AVC. The multi-objective, cross-layer optimization aims to find the H.264/AVC as well as the physical layer system parameters jointly to reach the optimal compromise between maximizing the average received video PSNR and minimizing the video broadcast service outage probability. Simulations conducted for the ITU Pedestrian A and Vehicular B channels show that further gains in system performance can be achieved for video broadcasting when such a cross-layer design is used.