Rate control for Scalable Video Coding with rate-distortion analysis of prediction modes

In Scalable Video Coding (SVC), inter-layer prediction is utilized to improve the coding efficiency of the enhancement layers. However the rate control scheme in the Joint Scalable Video Model (JSVM) software lacks consideration of the implications of inter-layer prediction as it was designed for non-scalable video encoders. In this work, a novel rate control algorithm is proposed for when inter-layer prediction is employed in SVC. Firstly, a Rate-Quantization (R-Q) model for inter-layer prediction coding of the spatial enhancement layers is developed. Secondly, an optimized Mean Absolute Difference (MAD) prediction model for spatial enhancement layers is proposed, that considers the MAD from previous temporal frames and previous spatial frames together. Simulation results show that rate control accuracy is maintained to within 0.07% on average. Compared with the default rate control algorithm employed in SVC, namely the JVT-G012 rate control scheme, the proposed algorithm improves the average PSNR by up to 0.26dB or produces an average saving in bit rate of up to 4.66%.