Abstract
In this thesis we present a new SNR scalable video coding scheme. An important
advantage of the proposed scheme is that it requires just a standard video
decoder for processing each layer. The quality of the delivered video depends on
the allocation of bit rates to the base and enhancement layers. For a given total
bit rate, the combination with a bigger base layer delivers higher quality. The absence
of dependencies between frames in enhancement layers makes the system
resilient to losses of arbitrary frames from an enhancement layer. Furthermore,
that property can be used in a more controlled fashion.
An important characteristic of any video streaming scheme is the ability to handle
network bandwidth fluctuations. We made a streaming technique that observes
the network conditions and based on the observations reconfigures the layer configuration
in order to achieve the best possible quality. A change of the network
conditions forces a change in the number of layers or the bit rate of these layers.
Knowledge of the network conditions allows delivery of a video of higher quality
by choosing an optimal layer configuration. When the network degrades, the
amount of data transmitted per second is decreased by skipping frames from an
enhancement layer on the sender side. The presented video coding scheme allows
skipping any frame from an enhancement layer, thus enabling an efficient real-time
control over transmission at the network level and fine-grained control over the decoding
of video data. The methodology proposed is not MPEG-2 specific and can
be applied to other coding standards.
We made a terminal resource manager that enables trade-offs between quality
and resource consumption due to the use of scalable video coding in combination
with scalable video algorithms. The controller developed for the decoding process
optimizes the perceived quality with respect to the CPU power available and the
amount of input data. The controller does not depend on the type of scalability
technique and can therefore be used with any scalable video. The controller uses
the strategy that is created offline by means of a Markov Decision Process. During
the evaluation it was found that the correctness of the controller behavior depends
on the correctness of parameter settings for MDP, so user tests should be employed
to find the optimal settings.
Original language | English |
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Qualification | Doctor of Philosophy |
Awarding Institution |
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Supervisors/Advisors |
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Award date | 27 Aug 2007 |
Place of Publication | Eindhoven |
Publisher | |
Print ISBNs | 978-90-386-1090-0 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2007 |