Automatic and adaptive network-aware macroblock intra refresh for error-resilient H.264/AVC video coding

In this paper, an automatic and adaptive network-aware macroblock Intra coding refresh method is proposed. It adaptively selects the amount of gracefully forced Intra macroblocks and the amount of cyclic Intra refresh (CIR) macroblocks based on the actual network error conditions, in terms of packet loss rate, an the target encoding bit rate. With the proposed method, the error robustness of H.264/AVC bitstreams can be significantly increased by efficiently taking into account the actual rate-distortion impact of Intra coding macroblock mode decisions, while simultaneously guaranteeing that errors do not propagate endlessly by selecting an adequate amount of CIR macroblocks per frame according to the network packet loss rate and the encoding target bit rate.