Multiple description coding for robust video transmission over wireless ad-hoc networks

This paper presents a quality-scalable multiple description coding method for the H.264/AVC for error-resilient video transmission in wireless ad-hoc networks. In the proposed system, each video frame is divided into two regions according to the motion activities in the scene and the more important region is encoded into two independently decodable and equally important descriptions. The two descriptions are transmitted over different paths to a receiver in order to alleviate the effect of unstable channel conditions of wireless ad-hoc networks. If the two descriptions are received error-free, then a high quality video is reconstructed. If one description is lost, then the other description can still be decoded to produce a basic video quality, and furthermore, the correctly received description is used to estimate the lost information of the corrupted description. The proposed MD coder maintains an adequate video quality as long as both description are not simultaneously lost. Simulation results show that the proposed MD coding combined with multi-path transport system is largely immune to packet losses, and therefore, can be a promising solution for robust video communications in wireless ad-hoc networks.