Frame corruption estimation from route messages for video coding over mobile ad hoc networks

Recently we proposed a cross-layer design to support video communication over error-prone mobile ad-hoc networks. The idea is to utilize routing messages and network parameters to estimate the corrupted frames, and to guide the reference frame selection at the video encoder to mitigate error propagation. In this paper, we focus on the frame corruption estimation method used in the design. We build a packet loss probability model from the MAC layer mechanism and network parameters; then we utilize the model along with the routing messages received at the network layer to estimate the possible corrupted frames. We study our estimation method under different network settings and demonstrate its effectiveness and robustness. We further show the video quality gains achieved by adapting reference frame selection to the estimated results.