Expanding Window Fountain coded scalable video in broadcasting

Abstract

The Expanding Window Fountain (EWF) codes are a new class of rateless codes, providing Unequal Error Protection (UEP). These codes are especially suitable for Scalable Video Coding (SVC) having unequally important data layers. In this paper, we show that EWF codes are usable for transmitting scalable video in mobile channels. We characterize the channel by field measurements in a DVB-H network. We tune the EWF code parameters to achieve real-time transmissions of SVC video. Moreover, we use a code symbol header for the EWF codes, which is also used in the IPDC over DVB-H standard, such that the codes can be efficiently used without the need for excessive packet header redundancy. We show that if some latency in the video is acceptable, then EWF codes can be used for real-time transmissions.