QoS Assured Multi-rate H.264 Scalable Video Multi-cast with Network Coding in Lossy Networks

Abstract

This paper proposes a new multi-rate H.264 scalable video multicast in lossy network using network coding. We first prioritize video layer based on its effect to the end-to-end video quality. Each video layer is routed via the path obtained from the optimization framework under the constraints on quality of service (QoS) guarantees. The data transmissions of lower layers, which are more important for decoding process in video reproduction, are assigned to more reliable paths with QoS guarantee to further improve user’s experience. Different destinations may receive different numbers of video layers depending on their network resources. The bottleneck in the network is resolved by using network coding technique to ensure that all destinations can receive the data rates equaling their theoretical data rates, i.e., max flows. The network coding is only applied within the same layer to ensure its QoS guarantee. Simulation and numerical results under randomly generated networks show the advantage of the proposed scheme in terms of objective and subject qualities of the end-to-end video transmission.