A new family of channel coding schemes for real-time visual communications

In this paper, we extend our work in [Karande, S. S. and Radha, H., 2003] which employed partial Reed-Solomon (PRS) codes at coding rates near channel capacity on a binary erasure channel (BEC). We demonstrated that an appropriately designed PRS code outperforms the classical Reed-Solomon (RS) code for a performance criterion tailored for realtime applications. This paper extends this analysis for a general BEC with varying channel conditions (under/above channel capacity). We illustrate that PRS codes exhibit a graceful degradation in erasure recovery performance and, hence, are suitable for multimedia communication. Our video simulation results outline that the enhanced erasure recovery yields a profound improvement in the perceived media quality. Finally we investigate the performance of the dividend rendered by PRS codes operating above channel capacity. In particular we define a paradigm for a unique "fixed rate" adaptive FEC scheme based on PRS codes.