A joint source-channel rate-distortion optimization algorithm for H.264 codec in wireless networks

Abstract

In recent years, the demand for video transmission over wireless communication networks is growing very fast. The H.264 video compression standard which offers high quality at low bit rates, is a suitable codec for applications that require efficient video transmission over wireless networks. While the compressed videos are transmitted through error-prone networks, error robustness becomes an important issue. In this paper, a joint source-channel Lagrange optimization method in which the distortion of the decoder is estimated without using feedback which can be used for both multicast and point-to-point applications is proposed. The experimental results show that the new algorithm has a good performance in video transmission over error-prone channels by concealing the lost packets at the decoder. © 2008 Springer-Verlag.