Rate allocation algorithms for motion compensated embedded video coders

In this paper, we present two rate allocation algorithms for embedded motion compensated video coders. The algorithms are based on the modeling of both the video signal and the coder which allow us to express the coding distortion with a recurrence equation. Our algorithms assign rates to the frames of each group of pictures (GOP) of a video sequence in an optimum way. In the first algorithm, the criterion is to minimize the average (MENAVE) distortion and in the second to achieve constant distortion (CD) in all frames. Numerical simulations show the MENAVE criterion can introduce large variations in quality with no significant gains in average distortion with respect to the CD criterion. We also show how the motion estimation accuracy and the GOP length influence in both strategies.