Unified complexity model for H.264/AVC video processing on mobile platform

In this paper, a unified computational complexity model is proposed to predict the H.264/AVC encoding and decoding computing cycles on popular ARM featured mobile platform. We have developed an analytical complexity model considering the video spatial resolution (i.e., frame size), temporal resolution (i.e., frame rate), and amplitude resolution (i.e., signal amplitude which is usually controlled by compression quantization parameter (QP)). Our proposed model has been validated for H.264/AVC encoding, where x264 is chosen as the typical mobile H.264 encoder. The same analytical model is also extended and verified for the H.264/AVC decoding using FFmpeg. Extensive simulations have been carried out to experiment different scenarios using various video sources at different frame sizes (e.g., HD to QCIF), frame rates (e.g., 60 to 3.75 fps) and bit rates (either using constant QP or rate control). Results demonstrate the high accuracy of our proposed model, with the average relative prediction error less than 7%.