Transmission of scalable h.264 coded video over wireless MIMO systems with optimal bandwidth allocation

We propose an optimal strategy for the transmission of scalable video over multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless systems. In this paper, we use the latest scalable H.264 codec which provides combined temporal, quality and spatial scalability. At the transmitter, we have developed a method for the estimation of the video distortion at the receiver for given channel conditions. The accuracy of this method is validated using experimental results. In our proposed system, we use a MIMO system with orthogonal space-time block codes (O-STBC) that provides spatial diversity and guarantees independent transmission of different symbols within the block code. Rate-compatible punctured convolutional (RCPC) codes are used for unequal error protection of the scalable layers. In the constrained bandwidth allocation framework considered here, we use the estimated decoder distortion to optimally select the application layer parameter, i.e. quantization parameter (QP), and physical layer parameters, i.e. RCPC and modulation.