Generic uneven level protection algorithm for multimedia data transmission over packet-switched networks

To achieve more efficient usage of channel bandwidth and provide better protection for the media payload transmitted over lossy packet-switched networks, we introduce a new scheme of generic uneven level protection (ULP) forward error correction. The scheme provides different protection levels for data of different significance within a packet. The ULP scheme is designed to be independent from the nature of the media that it protects, and it is very flexible for any protection configuration the user might need without using any out-of-band signaling. Simulation using a video stream transmitted over a lossy packet-switched network shows that the ULP algorithm achieves significant gain for the quality of the transmission over a wide range of network conditions.