Multi-path Transport of FGS Video

Fine-Granularity-Scalability (FGS) has been adopted into the MPEG-4 streaming video profile. The FGS framework allows the encoded video to be transmitted with flexible network bandwidth adaptation and error resilience ability. In many streaming video applications, multiple paths may be available in the network, such as the Internet overlay network, Ad-hoc network and MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Out) wireless channels, to transport the video stream. How to take advantage of this multi-path transport capability to effectively deliver an FGS stream has not been well studied. In this paper, we propose to separate the enhancement layer in the original FGS stream into multiple descriptions for effective transport over the multiple paths. Simulation result shows that our approach can improve the decoded visual quality. This work may not be copied or reproduced in whole or in part for any commercial purpose. Permission to copy in whole or in part without payment of fee is granted for nonprofit educational and research purposes provided that all such whole or partial copies include the following: a notice that such copying is by permission of Mitsubishi Electric Information Technology Center America; an acknowledgment of the authors and individual contributions to the work; and all applicable portions of the copyright notice. Copying, reproduction, or republishing for any other purpose shall require a license with payment of fee to Mitsubishi Electric Information Technology Center America. All rights reserved. Copyright c ©Mitsubishi Electric Information Technology Center America, 2003 201 Broadway, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 13th International Workshop on Packet Video