Robust wireless video multicast based on a distributed source coding approach

In this paper, we present a scheme for robust scalable video multicast based on distributed source coding principles. Unlike prediction-based coders, like MPEG-x and H.26x, the proposed framework is designed specifically for lossy wireless channels and directly addresses the problem of drift due to packet losses. The proposed solution is based on recently proposed PRISM (power efficient robust syndrome-based multimedia coding) video coding framework [R. Puri, K. Ramchandran, PRISM: a new robust video coding architecture based on distributed compression principles, in: Allerton Conference on Communication, Control and Computing, Urbana-Champaign, IL, October 2002] and addresses SNR, spatial and temporal scalability. Experimental results show that substantial gains are possible for video multicast over lossy channels as compared to standard codecs, without a dramatic increase in encoder design complexity as the number of streams increases.