Unequal error protection for the scalable extension of H.264/AVC using genetic algorithm

Abstract

With the rapid development of multimedia technology, video transmission over error prone channels is becoming possible. Lossy video coding together with channel errors result in more degradation in quality of the video. Unequal Error Protection (UEP) can be employed for solving this issue. Using UEP with scalable video coding (SVC) improves the quality of the transmitted video. The efficiency of this combination can be further enhanced by carefully considering the importance of each protected element. In this paper, we propose an efficient UEP scheme to protect scalable video, coded with the scalable extension of H.264/AVC, over networks with packet loss. Genetic algorithm (GA) is exploited to achieve the optimal rate allocation for each layer. Experimental results show a significant improvement of 1.15dB in average, in comparison with conventional methods. © 2008 Springer-Verlag.