Joint Forward Error Correction Research Articles

Energy-Aware Concurrent Multipath Transfer for Real-Time Video Streaming Over Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

The advancements in networking technologies and hand-held devices enable mobile users to concurrently receive real-time multimedia streaming (e.g., high-definition video) with different radio interfaces (e.g., Wi-Fi and LTE networks). Stream control transmission protocol (SCTP) is an important transport-layer solution to implement concurrent multipath transfer (CMT) over heterogeneous wireless networks with multihomed terminals. However, it is challenging to distribute multimedia content to resource-limited mobile devices because of the contradiction between energy consumption and streaming quality. To deliver the energy-efficient and quality-aware multimedia streaming over multiple wireless networks, this paper presents an Energy and goodPut Optimized CMT (EPOC) solution. First, we develop an analytical framework to model the relationship between energy consumption and goodput performance for real-time multimedia transmission to multihomed mobile devices. Second, we propose a joint forward error correction coding and rate allocation scheme to minimize energy consumption while satisfying goodput constraint. EPOC effectively leverages the energy-goodput tradeoff and multipath diversity to optimize mobile multimedia transmission in heterogeneous networking environment. We conduct the performance evaluation through extensive semi-physical emulations in Exata involving H.264 video streaming. Compared with the reference CMT schemes using SCTP, EPOC achieves appreciable improvements in energy conservation, goodput, and video peak signal-to-noise ratio.

Leveraging the Delay-Friendliness of TCP With FEC Coding in Real-Time Video Communication

Transmission control protocol (TCP) is pervasively employed as the transport-layer solution in popular video applications (e.g., Skype, Google+, HTTP-based adaptive video streaming, etc.) for firewall traversal and network-friendliness. To remedy the shortcomings of the data retransmission mechanism in TCP, forward error correction (FEC) coding is commonly used as the application-layer error-resilient scheme in live media streaming systems. An important measurement study reveals that TCP exhibits delay-friendliness (i.e., delay-performance bias) towards traffic flows composed of small-size packets. Motivated by leveraging the delay-friendliness of TCP to optimize the real-time streaming video quality, we propose a novel FEC coding scheme dubbed C oded L ive vide O S treaming ov E r T CP (CLOSET). To achieve the optimal video quality over the lossy communication networks, we analytically formulate the constrained optimization problem of joint FEC coding and packet interleaving to minimize the effective packet loss rate. Then, we provide an approximate analysis to derive the solution for online adaption of FEC redundancy, packet size, and interleaving level. The performance of CLOSET is evaluated through extensive semi-physical emulations in Exata involving real-time encoded H.264 video streaming. Experimental results show that CLOSET outperforms the reference FEC coding schemes in terms of video peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), end-to-end delay, ratio of overdue video frames, and goodput. Therefore, we recommend CLOSET for TCP-based real-time video communication systems.

A combined multiple-candidate likelihood decoding and error concealment scheme for compressed video transmission over noisy channels

This paper presents a joint forward error correction (FEC) and error concealment (EC) scheme to enhance the quality of a compressed video signal transmitted over a noisy channel. A multiple candidate likelihood (MCL) channel decoding strategy is used in conjunction with redundancy in the compressed video (syntax validity and spatial discontinuity) to select the best-detected signal. Simulation results on both objective and subjective performance measures indicate a significant improvement provided by the proposed scheme.