Unequal error protection multilevel codes and hierarchical modulation for multimedia transmission

This paper presents the design of multilevel coding schemes optimized for the transport of multimedia data. The key feature is unequal error protection which allows for more protection for header information and essential data, accepting worse performance for less important payload. The approach is based on the information theoretical description of mutual information in multilevel coding schemes. We discuss the suitability and UEP capability of standard as well as non-uniform signal constellations. We investigate the flexibility of this method regarding the design freedom and verify the approach by an image transmission application.