Adaptive FEC-Encoding for Video Streaming over WiFi

In video streaming it is important that the video stream reaches the users in time, and without errors. To retransmit lost packets in a largescale multimedia video transmission is often unfeasible because of the retransmission delay. Because of that errors require either costly retransmissions or causes a downgrade of performance for the receiving user, an important goal is to minimize the number of errors that occurs when transmitting data during video streaming through a wireless channel. In this paper an adaptation-algorithm is proposed, which adapts itself in such away that the receivers of e.g. the broadcast will receive enough packets in order to be able to FEC-decode the received data in lowas well as high loss-scenarios. The algorithm adapts itself by changing the rate of FEC-encoded redundant packets based on the current packet-loss-rate of the channel, with the aim of optimizing the bandwidth-usage and providing the receiver with playable data meeting deadlines. It adds an additional self-adaptive amount of FEC-encoded redundant packets for each FEC-encoded-session in order to guarantee the ability of the receiver to FEC-decode the data and play the media, even under the conditions in which the inteference-level of the channel increases during the transmission of each such session. Simulations demonstrate that in a wireless channel with a packet loss rate of 10%, using 1000 source packets per FEC-encoded unit, 12.6% redundant packets are required in order to ensure a FEC-decoding-failure probability < 1 1000 .