Error-resilient video transmission using multiple embedded Wyner-Ziv descriptions

This paper proposes systematic lossy error protection of video waveforms using multiple embedded Wyner-Ziv video descriptions. A video signal transmitted over an error-prone channel, without channel coding, constitutes the systematic portion of the transmission. Error protection is achieved by additionally transmitting two or more bitstreams generated by Wyner-Ziv coding of the video signal. The Wyner-Ziv bitstreams contain multiple embedded coarsely quantized descriptions of the original video signal. In the event of channel errors, the Wyner-Ziv descriptions are decoded, thereby limiting the maximum distortion that can occur. The available Wyner-Ziv bit-rate is allocated among the multiple embedded descriptions, using the observation that the visibility of slice losses and quantization artifacts depends on the employed coding structure. Experimental results show that the trade-off between error-resilience and residual quantization distortion can be better exploited using multiple embedded Wyner-Ziv descriptions, compared to earlier results with a single Wyner-Ziv bitstream. The system delivers gracefully deteriorating video quality without requiring a layered video compression scheme in the systematic portion of the transmission.