Joint source channel coding with hybrid FEC/ARQ for buffer constrained video transmission

We propose an automatic repeat request (ARQ)/forward error correction (FEC) scheme for synchronous transmission of video over a binary symmetric constant rate channel. The approach consists of jointly allocating source and channel rates to video blocks from a given admissible set subject to the buffer or equivalently end-end delay constraints. The channel codes used are the popular class of powerful FEC codes known as rate-compatible punctured convolutional (RCPC) codes. The method used involves independent coding of the video units and optimization of the end-to-end expected delivered video quality. The existence of a return channel is assumed through which the decoder informs the encoder about the success/failure of the transmission. In the event of a failure, incremental parity information is sent to the decoder for correcting errors and a reallocation performed at the encoder. The simulations done point out the efficacy of the proposed scheme.