MPEG Video and ATM Network Cell Loss: Analysis and Experimentation

The goal of this paper is to evaluate the effect of ATM network cell loss on the playback quality of transmitted MPEG video. The MPEG format and its susceptibility to data corruption is analyzed to calculate a theoretical statistical data corruption per cell loss measure. Experiments are run using an ATM network simulator with actual MPEG video to measure the effect of cell loss rate and burstiness of losses on resulting playback picture quality. Empirical results of visual information loss rates are presented, and a Human Factors study evaluates viewers’ subjective satisfaction of resulting picture quality. Results indicate that video quality degrades rapidly as cell loss rate increases, and a 0.1% loss rate provides an effective cut-off point of playback acceptability.