Unequal loss protection for H.263 compressed video

The application of unequal loss protection (ULP) algorithms to motion-compensated video over lossy packet networks is studied. In particular, the focus is on streaming video applications over the Internet. The original ULP framework applies unequal amounts of forward error correction (FEC) to embedded data to provide graceful degradation of quality in the presence of increasing packet loss. The ULP framework is applied to baseline H.263, a non-embedded video compression standard, by investigating re-orderings of the bitstream. The re-ordering process makes the bitstream appear embedded, allowing a receiver to display high quality video even at the high loss rate encountered in wireless transmissions and the current Internet.