Robust H.263+ Video for Real-Time Internet Applications

Any real-time interactive video coding algorithm used over the Internet needs to be able to cope with packet loss, since the existing error recovery mechanisms are not suitable for real-time data. In this paper, a robust H.263+ video codec suitable for realtime interactive and multicast Internet applications is proposed. Initially, the robustness to packet loss of H.263 video packetised according to the RTP-H.263+ payload format specifications is assessed. Two techniques are proposed to minimise temporal propagation selective FEC of the motion information and the use of Periodic Reference frames. It is shown that when these two techniques are combined, the robustness to loss of H.263+ video is greatly improved.