(IJCSIS) International Journal of Computer Science and Information Security,Vol.
8
, No.
8
, 2010
Scalable Video Coding in Online Video transmissionwith Bandwidth Limitation
1
Sima Ahmadpour,
2
Salah Noori Saleh,
1
Omar Amer Abouabdalla,
1
Mahmoud Baklizi,
1
Nibras Abdullah1: {sima, omar, mbaklizi, abdullahfaqera}@nav6.org, salah_nrg@yahoo.com
1: National Advanced IPv6 Center of Excellence
1: Universiti Sains Malaysia1: Penang, Malaysia
Abstract
—
Resource limitation and variety of network and userscause many obstacles while transmitting data especially onlinevideo data through network. Video applications in Internet faceby significant growth in several market segments and bandwidthlimitation is one of those challenges which consider as a mainobstacle in this paper.
Keywords-component; bandwidth limitation, video codec, video conferencing, SVC
I.
I
NTRODUCTION
During the last few years the Internet has growntremendously and has penetrated all aspects of everyday life.Therefore, people are willing to communicate and exchange theinformation due to update their knowledge in different aspects.In this case, live connection among people in different locationaround the world comes to demand. Interactive video serviceslike video conferencing based on online education, distancelearning, online video games over the Internet are mostlypopular now a days. Meanwhile, modern video transmissionworks mainly based on Real Time Transport Protocol (RTP/IP)for real time services [1]. RTP mainly is an Internet protocol totransmit real time multimedia data over either unicast ormulticast network services.Typically, video data need to be compressed and decodedby video CODECs in the real time applications. CODECs areone of the common solutions to adapt video streams with lowbandwidth over the network. Bandwidth limitation is a mainobstacle faces by video streams through network especially inheterogeneous networks. [4], [8], [10], [12], [9]. In fact, videoCODECs are computer programs for compressing video due toreduce bandwidth requirements. After that, they transmit thosecompressed streams and decrease the storage requirements toarchive them easily. Solving the existed mismatches betweenbandwidth and computational requirement help to identify theminimum channel bandwidth required to pass encoded streamand minimize the specification of decoding device. In general,the video is encoded with CODEC once as a stream. Later, theresulting stream would produce a full resolution video indecode step [4].This paper focuses on the bandwidth limitation of internetthrough transmitting online video data as the main concern. Notonly bandwidth limitation on current Internet but also, extremebandwidth requirement of video lead to have a proper resourcemanagement to reach the real time performance. In section IIfive existing CODEC standards are defined. Comparison pointsand their performance through transmitting online videostreams are noted in a table at section III. Finally, theconclusion has been presented.II.
CODEC STANDARDS
A codec is whether a program or a device to encode ordecode a digital data stream or a signal. Normally, a codec useto encode the streams for transmission, storage or encryption.On the other hand, a stream may be decoded for playback orediting. The major video coding standards have been createdsince 1990s. They are mostly formulated based on the samegeneric design of a video CODEC that combines a motionestimation and compensation front end, a transform stage andan entropy encoder. Generally, each standard explains twoterms such as:
Compressed form visual data known as coded syntax.
The method of decoding the syntax to rearrange thevisual information.The main target of each standard is to make sure bothencoders and decoders are compatible to work properly witheach other. Otherwise, suppliers are not able to develop properproducts [2].There are different types of CODECs in the market since1990. They got huge changes facing by new productionregarding to their new requirements each time. In this paperMPEG-2, H.263, MPEG-4 Visual, H.264 and SVC arediscussed.
A.
MPEG-2
MPEG-2 mostly is used for broadcasting digital TV viacable, DVD-Video and MPEG Layer 3 audio coding known asMP3 which is became popular in terms of storage and sharingmusic. MPEG-2 introduced the idea of Profiles and Levels forthe first time without restricting the flexibility of the standard.In addition, MPEG-2 applications were looking for the properstandard for the next generation of products [2].
44http://sites.google.com/site/ijcsis/ISSN 1947-5500
(IJCSIS) International Journal of Computer Science and Information Security,Vol.
8
, No.
8
, 2010
B.
H.263
The original H.263 standard has published as a standard in1995. Its powerful compression was supporting basic videoquality at bitrates of below 30 kbit/s. H.263 is compatible withthe standards over wide range of circuit and packet switchednetworks. H.263 contains four optional coding modes andadded some extra modes to support improved compressionefficiency and robust transmission over lossy networks [2].
C.
MPEG-4 Visual
MPEG-4 is Part2 of the MPEG-4 group of standards. It isdeveloped by Moving Picture Experts Group known as(MPEG). It works on coding the audio-visual objects and cansupport those applications which are noted as below:
Legacy video applications like TV broadcasting, videoconferencing and video storage.
Object-based video applications that a video scenecontains a combination of different distinct videowhich are coded independently.
Computer graphics which are using 2D and 3Ddeformable mesh geometry or human faces and bodiesthat are animated.
Hybrid video applications which are combining naturalvideo, images and graphics generated by computer.
Streaming video over the Internet and mobile channels.
High-quality video editing using for the studioproduction.In overall, MPEG-4 Visual is slightly simple video codingmechanism with block-based video CODEC using motioncompensation followed by DCT, quantization and entropycoding [2].
D.
H.264 codec
H.264 is known as Advanced Video Coding which is astandard for codec visual data. It is actually designed to supporta strong and efficient coding and transmit of rectangular videoframes. H.264 was created to improve the functionality of previous CODEC such as H.263 and MPEG-4.H.264 mostly uses to compress video in both commercialand military application. H.264 works based on MPEG-2, usingmacroblock-based motion prediction and allows more flexibleencoding rather than MPEG-2. Furthermore, H.264 explains just bit stream syntax. Considering both error resilience andcoding efficiency, different H.264 encoders may createdifferent output [10]. The main applications contain:
Two-way video communication such as videoconferencing or video telephony.
Coding for broadcast and high quality video.
Video streaming over packet networks [2].
E.
Scalable Video Codec
The Scalable Video Coding is an extension of H.264/AVCwhich is created to control bandwidth and loss resilient videostreaming. SVC is working as a multilayer predictive encoder.Therefore, users are able to adapt the received videos byextracting and decoding the code layers based on the capabilityof their own devices and network throughput [1], [11].In Scalable Video Coding, decoder is able to decode justpart of the decoded bitstream selectively. Apart from that,encoder arranges the coded stream based on layers including abase layer and one or more enhancement layers. For instance in(figure1), decoder A can decode a basic quality version of video scene which is received from only the base layer. On theother hand, decoder B is receiving all layers and decodes a highquality version of the video. Furthermore, a number of applications come to demand for example, a low complexitydecoder may able to decode the base layer; a low bitstreamwith restricted capacity may be extracted for transmission overa network segment and also an error sensitive base layer maybe transmitted with higher priority in comparison withenhancement layers.
encoderVideoSequenceDecoder ADecoder BEnhancementLayer 1Base Layer
…
EnhancementLayer NBasic-qualitysequencehigh-qualitysequence
Figure 1. Scalable coding: general concept [2]
The Scalable Video CODEC influences the tools and conceptsof original CODEC. In addition, SVC supports a number of scalable coding modes such as Spatial Scalability, TemporalScalability, quality scalability as well as Fine Grain Scalability[1], [2], [4], [11], [12], [13]. It can cause different decodedvideo due to different frame rate, resolution or different quality.
45http://sites.google.com/site/ijcsis/ISSN 1947-5500
(IJCSIS) International Journal of Computer Science and Information Security,Vol.
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, No.
8
, 2010
1)
Spatial Scalability
Spatial Scalability is related to resolution of each frame.Typically, the base layer includes a reduced resolution of eachcoded frame. The output of base layer encoding is a lowresolution sequence while encoding both base layer andenhancement layers creates a high resolution output.Meanwhile, spatial enhancement layers is coding deferenceinformation among the picture of up scaled reference layer andhigher resolution of original picture increase a resolution of coded pictures [2]
2)
Temporal Scalability
Temporal scalability can be used to create a high framerate. Generally, it is related to the number of frames per second(fps) in video stream. Temporal enhancement layers encodeadditional pictures to increase the frame rate of reproducedvideo. However, it is not allowed to use those pictures asreference for spatial enhancement layers [3]
3)
Quality Scalability
With Quality Scalability, the substream creates a completebitstream with a spatio-temporal resolution and lower fidelity.Quality Scalability is often related to signal to noise Ratio(SNR) and it is mainly related to visual quality layers of thecoded video by different bitrates [3].
4)
Fine Grain Scalability
Fine Grain Scalability (FGS) increases the quality of sequence in small steps. A FGS application streams videothrough network that may be suitable to scale coded streambeing match with available bit rate [2]. The main new featuresof SVC are as follow:
Variable block-size motion-compensated predictionwith the block size down to 4x4 pixels;
Quarter-pixel motion vector accuracy;
Multiple reference pictures for motion compensation;
Bi-directional predicted picture as a reference formotion prediction;
Intra-picture prediction in the spatial domain;
Adaptive deblocking filter within the motion-compensated prediction loop;
Small block-size transformation (4x4 block transform);
Enhanced entropy coding methods: Context-AdaptiveVariable-Length Coding (CAVLC) and Context-Adaptive Binary Arithmetic Coding (CABAC)).
TABLE I. C
OMPARISON OF ABOVE MENTIONED
CODEC
S
MPEG-2 H.263 MPEG-4 Visual H.264 SVC
Data type Object basecoding schemeObject base widerange of circuit andpacket switchednetworksRectangular videoframes and fieldsRectangular videoframes and fieldsRectangular videoframes and fieldsCompressionefficiencyLoss efficiency Loss efficiency Medium High HighMotioncompensationMinimum block size8 × 8 8 × 8 8 × 8 4 × 4 4 × 4
III.
DISCUSSION
CODEC’s improvements increase extremely along with
multimedia developments. Considering above mentioned
CODECs’ capabilities, each CODEC has been adapted by the
newest version of production at its own time. Therefore,MPEG-2 and H.263 stand on object base scheme where lossCompression efficiency is another issue.In MPEG-4 Visual and H.264 macroblock-based motioncompensation is the core technology of video coding whiletransformation and quantization of residual data is considered[2]. Although, the compression efficiency of MPEG-4 Visual ismedium in comparison with H.264 and SVC, still it worksbetter than both H.263 and MPEG-2 with loss efficiency.SVC is able to create high compression efficiency codingwhich is the main requirement of online applications. In case,when a lower resolution or bandwidth stream is needed toreach the network and a lower performance device is aimed asmall part of the decoded stream would be sent without anyfurther processing. Current small stream would be easier todecode and result a video with low resolution. In this case, theencoded video stream would adapt itself to the bandwidth of the transport channel and to requirements of target device. Thisis the characteristic of Scalable Video CODEC.IV.
CONCLUSION
Although traditional systems for transmitting video datamay have some scalable capability, but they still have somechallenges due to less coding efficiency and complex decoder.Furthermore, different types of scalability may be combinedand create large number of representations with differentspatio- temporal resolutions. In this case, one single bit streamis able to support the bit rates. However, SVC supports is usingmultiple dimension scalable modes to support flexiblebitstream. Otherwise, the main problem of SVC is that: how toguarantee user perceived quality (UPQ) which means that howto guarantee user satisfaction with video quality in videoservices. This is considered as future work [7].
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Scalable Video Coding in Online Video transmission with Bandwidth Limitation
Resource limitation and variety of network and users cause many obstacles while transmitting data especially online video data through network. Video applications in Internet face by significant growth in several market segments and bandwidth limitation is one of those challenges which consider as a main obstacle in this paper.
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