Temporal dispersal of multiple representations for error-resilient video streaming

Video streaming over wireless and cellular networks is severely hampered by the presence of burst errors and signal loss intervals. In this paper, we propose a scheme for error-resilient video streaming known as Multiple Representation Coding (MRC). In the MRC scheme, multiple independently decodable representations are generated from the source video. These multiple representations are then temporally dispersed and transmitted as a single video stream using a novel GOP interleaving scheme (GOP: Group of Pictures). By temporally dispersing the multiple representations, the GOP-interleaver ensures that spatio-temporally co-located segments of the video sequence corresponding to different representations are not impaired by the same burst loss, even when transmitted over a single channel. Simulation results demonstrate that in contrast to conventional full-size encoding and transmission of the video sequence, the MRC scheme can facilitate a graceful recovery from impairments introduced by burst and signal losses over the network.