Constant rate control algorithm for Wyner-Ziv video codec

Abstract

In a distributed video coding (DVC) system, the total bit-rate depends on bit-rate of the key frames (Intra frames) and the Wyner-Ziv (WZ) frames. The key frames bit-rate is relatively easy to control since they are encoded with an Intra coding scheme (e.g. H.264/AVC Intra), and there are many proposed solutions in literature which address this issue 1, 2 . On the other hand, rate control (RC) of the WZ frames at the encoder is more difficult since the bit-rate of WZ frames is difficult to predict and control due to the absence of the side information at the decoder side. In this work, an RC algorithm developed within the VISNET II, the European Network of Excellence, is presented as an efficient solution to achieve and maintain the target bit-rate for the overall Intra frames and WZ bitstream, mainly by changing the degree of compression of the Intra frames which is controlled by quantization parameter (QP). In order to maintain a similar quality for the Intra and WZ frames, the WZ quantization index (QIndex) follows the QP changes. A statistical model is used to describe the relationship between QIndex and the WZ frames bit-rate. Additionally, an analysis of influence of the key frames residuum complexity on WZ frames bitrate was conducted. The proposed algorithm adapted to the VISNET2 WZ video codec 3 confirms its efficiency in terms of achieving and maintaining the target bit-rate.