BI-DIRECTIONAL PACKING OF COMPRESSED MULTIMEDIA

DATA FOR IMPROVED ERROR RESILIENCY

by

ARAVIND SRINIVASAN, B.E.

A THESIS

IN

COMPUTER SCIENCE

Submitted to the Graduate Faculty

of Texas Tech University in
Partial Fulfillment of
the Requirements for
the Degree of

MASTER OF SCIENCE

Approved

Accepted

May, 2001
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Gopal Lakhani, for his constant

guidance and support during the course of this research and my graduate study. Without

his ideas and advice, this thesis would not have been possible. I indeed feel indebted to

him for the time and effort he has put into my thesis. I wish to express my thanks for Dr.

Larry Pyeatt and Dr. Mohammad Maqusi for agreeing to be on my thesis committee and

for their valuable advice and suggestions. Also, I wish to express my gratitude to the

Department of Computer Science, Texas Tech University, for providing me with the

facilities to carry out my research work and the TxTEC consortium for flinding my

research.

Finally, I would like to acknowledge the support, encouragement and

understanding of my roommates. Raj, Srinivas and Senthil, who have been like a family

to me.

n
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii

ABSTRACT vi

LIST OF TABLES vii

LIST OF FIGURES vii

CHAPTER

1. ESTTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Organization of the Report 1

1.2 Multimedia Data 2

1.3 Entropy Coding 2

1.3.1 Fixed Length Codes versus Variable Length Codes 6

1.3.2 Disadvantages of Variable Length codes 6

1.4 Organization of Multimedia Data 7

1.5 Network Transmission 10

1.5.1 Wireline versus Wireless transmission 10

1.5.2 Error Handling 10

2. ERROR RESILIENCE CODING 12

2.1 Need for Error Resilience Coding 12

2.2 Error Resilience Coding Schemes 12

2.2.1 Resynchronization and Localization 13

2.2.2 Unequal Error Protection 14

ui
 2.2.3 Conceahnent 1^

2.3 Summary of Literature Survey 1^

3. ERROR RESILIENT ENTROPY CODE ALGORITHM 16

3.1 Objective 16

3.2 Approach 16

3.3 Limitations of EREC Algorithm 22

4. BI-DIRECTIONAL ERROR RESILIENT ENTROPY CODE ALGORITHM 23

4.1 Objective 23

4.2 Improvements to EREC 24

4.2.1 Bi-Directional Packing 24

4.2.2 Block Interleaving 25

4.2.3 Changing the Search Order 25

4.3 BiEREC Algorithm 26

4.4 Handling of Channel Errors 32

4.5 Implementation of BiEREC Algorithm 33

4.6 Summary of BiEREC Improvements 36

5. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND ANALYSIS 41

5.1 Objective 41

5.2 Input Data 41

5.3 Simulation Resuhs 44

5.3.1 Measurement of Packing Efficiency of Encoder 44

5.3.2 Measurement of Error Propagation 50

IV
 5.3.3 Comparison of Decoded Erroneous Images 5^

6. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK 58

6.1 Conclusions 58

6.2 Contributions of this Research 59

6.3 Future Work 60

REFERENCES 61
 ABSTRACT

Most data compression schemes split the input signal into blocks and then

produce a variable length code for each block. Since variable length codes are highly

sensitive to channel errors that may occur during transmission, synchronization code

words are often inserted between blocks to provide occasional resynchronization thereby

addmg more redundant bits of data.

Error-resilient entropy coding (EREC) is a method of adapting existing schemes

to give increased resilience to random and burst errors while maintaining high

compression. This report proposes improvements to the EREC algorithm to increase its

error resiUency. The objective is to pack code blocks in fixed-size slots, so that in the

presence of bit errors, more data (blocks) can be recovered than is possible with the

original EREC method of packing.

VI
 LIST OF TABLES

1.1 A Comparison of Hufiftnan and fixed-length codes 6

4.1 Stage-by-stage decoding for BiEREC ^^

4.2 Stage-by-stage decoding for EREC ^^

5.1 Offsetfi-agmentsfor EREC 47

5.2 Offset fi-agments for BiEREC 47

5.3 Packing-Offset-Quotient for different images 48

5.4 Propagation of Errors for various BERs 51

vn
 LIST OF FIGURES

1.1 HuflBnan coding 4

1.2 MPEG compression stream 8

3.1 EREC bit reorganization algorithm 19

3.2 Propagation of error in EREC structure 22

4.1 Bi-EREC bit reorganization algorithm 30

4.2 Blocks of Figure 4.1 packed usmg EREC algorithm 37

5.1 Gold Image 43

5.2 Lena Image 43

5.3 Packing-Offset-Quotient graph 49

5.4 Propagation of channel errors 53

5.5 Stage by stage decoding of erroneous image 54

5.6 Lena recovered using EREC algorithm 56

5.7 Lena recovered using Bi-EREC algorithm 56

vni
 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Organization of the report

This thesis presents a study of coding of multhnedia streams for transmission over

channels of very limited bandwidth. The study concentrates on how to organize the data

so that in case of transmission errors, the erroneous data, which cannot be decoded, is

reduced and skipping the erroneous data has Umited effect on reconstruction of original

input. This thesis does not mention any specific method for recovery of lost data. The

objective is to decode as much input as possible without adding extra redundancy to the

data.

The thesis is organized into a number of chapters. This chapter provides a brief

introduction to the coding of multimedia data. It also gives a brief introduction to

transmission errors and its effect on coded data. The second chapter introduces error

resilience codmg. It also gives a brief survey of hterature on various approaches for error

resilient coding. The third chapter presents the Error Resilient Entropy Coding (EREC)

algorithm of [1] in detail and discusses its advantages and limitations. The fourth chapter

discusses the crux of this thesis. Bi-directional Error Resilient Entropy Coding (BiEREC)

algorithm. Fifth chapter gives the resuhs of some simulations carried on BiEREC and

EREC using real-life image data. Conclusions and possible extensions are listed in the

sixth chapter.
 1.2 Multimedia Data

Uncompressed multimedia data (graphics, audio or video) requires considerable

storage capacity and transmission bandwidth. To reduce the volume of the data, raw data

is generally compressed. The compression is achieved by exploiting any redundancy

present in the multimedia data in many different forms.

Most compression schemes work in two phases. Initially, the data is grouped into

separate segments or blocks. The objective of the first phase is to model the input based

on certain characteristics inherent to the data and then extract redundancy as the data is

read. The output of this phase is a stream of abstract symbols, where each symbol

represents a part of the original input stream. The purpose of the second phase is to

encode each symbol using a bit string, the length of which is based on the fi-equency of

occurrences of the symbol. This phase is called the entropy coding. For example, in the

well-known JPEG [4] image compression system, input image is first divided in blocks of

8x8 pixels. During the first phase, each block is transformed using discrete cosine

transformation (DCT) and a stream of consisting of DCT coefficients of each block are

output. During the second phase, DCT coefficients are coded using entropy-coding

algorithm such as Huffman coding or arithmetic coding.

1.3 Entropy Coding

Entropy coding is a way of representing information. In this representation,

symbols occurring in lesser fi-equency are coded using more numbers of bits This

approach of coding symbols makes use of an important observation in information

theory, which is that the information content of a symbol appearing more fi-equently is

smaller than the information content of a symbol appearing less frequently There are

many entropy-coding techniques; Hufihnan coding and Arithmetic coding are most

widely known. Huffman coding is a statistical data compression technique, which

reduces the average code length of symbols of an alphabet set. The Huflftnan encoder

produces optimal length code in case, the probability of occurrence of each symbol is an

integral power of 1/2. A Huffman code table can be buih in the following manner:

1. Rank all symbols in order of probability of their occurrences.

2. Successively combine the two symbols of the lowest probability to form a new

composite symbol. Add this symbol as a new node of a binary tree. This node denotes

the probability of all nodes in the sub-tree. Eventually we will build a binary tree

where each node is the probability of all nodes beneath it.

3. Trace a path to each leaf, keeping track the direction at each node.

For a given probability/fi-equency distribution, there are many possible sets of Huflhnan

codes, but the total compressed length of the coded input will be the same.

The following example illustrates the Huffman algorithm (Figure 1.1).

 iCombine the two lowest fi^equencies,
IF and E, to form a sub-tree
^ ii of weight 14.
jiMove it into its correct place.

"% lAgain combine the two lowest frequencies,

iC and B, to form a sub-tree
jof weight 25.
iMove it into its correct place.

,/

jNow the sub-tree with weight, 14, and D are

jjcombined to make a tree of weight, 30.
ijMove it to its correct place.

Figure 1.1 Huffman coding

X

iNow the two lowest weights are held by the "25"

land "30" sub-trees, so combine them to make one
iof weight, 55.
iMove it after the A.

HFinally, combine the A and the "55" sub-tree to

liproduce the final tree.
liThe encoding table is:

H A 0
Ii C 100
H B 101
ii F 1100
n E 1101
n D 111

Figure 1.1 Continued

1.3.1 Fixed Length Codes versus Variable Length Codes (VLCs)

Instead of using the Huffman codes, which are of variable length, another choice

is to use fixed length binary codes. Table 1.1 shows fixed and variable length code sets

for an alphabet set of size 6.

Table 1.1 A comparison of Huffrnan and fixed length codes

Symbol Huffrnan Binary

codes codes

A 0 000
B 101 001
C 100 010
D 111 Oil
E 1101 100
F 1100 101

Let ACBFEDA be the input to be coded. Its Huffinan codmg will generate 1+3+3+4+4+3

+1 = 19 bits. If the same input were coded using the given fixed length codes, the number

of bits required would be 21 bits. The saving due to use of entropy coding is 2 bits For

large data sets, the savings is generally quite substantial. Therefore, variable length

coding is widely used in the field of data compression.

1.3.2 Disadvantages of VLCs

VLC is used widely for coding of data to be transmitted over network channels.

However, VLC is not suitable for use over channels susceptible to errors, because if a

single bit error occurs during transmission (0 changes to 1 and vice versa, maybe due to

noise), it may be very difficult to locate the presence of the error and recover the original
data. To demonstrate this problem, let us consider transmission of the above sequence,

ACBFEDA, coded using the Huffinan codes of Table 1.1. Let the code of the symbol E

be changed to 1111 due to a bit error. In this case, the decoder would receive the bit

sequence 0 100 101 1100 i i i i 111. It will be able to decode the initial symbols A, C, B,

F correctly but when it reads 111 (first three Is of the underlined bit segment), it would

erroneously decode it as D, as 111 is a vaUd code for D. Next, it would encounter a

sequence of three Is and interpret it agam as D. Finally, when the decoder sees only a

single 1, which is not a valid HufiBnan code for any symbol, it would fail. The reason is

that the decoder has no way of knowing the location of the error and how far it has

decoded. It also cannot skip a code segment and continue to decode there after, because

there are no such segment boundaries. This may result in the decoder throwing away

large amount of correct data, which could be just due to a single bit error. However, this

would not be the case if fixed length coding is used, since any bit error can affect only

one symbol and the decoder can skip a known number of bits and resume decoding at the

start of next symbol code.

1.4 Organization of Multimedia Data

A Multimedia data stream comprises of two types of data, one describes the input

such as the pixels of a picture and the other describes control parameters such as image

size and display rate. The stream is organized in several layers, with the top layer

describing the most abstract information and lower layer describing input dependent

information. For example, MPEG [5] stream is organized in 5 layers with each layer

7
describing different sets of parameters, which are needed to reconstruct the original

image sequence.

Sequence GOP GOP

header
Sequence layer

GOP Picture Picture Picture layer

header

Slice layer

Macro block
layer

Differential VLC VLC End Block layer

DC coeff of
Block

Figure 1.2 MPEG compression stream

A MPEG stream can be divided into segments so that there are alternately

control-information segments and image data segments. The control-information

segments generally consists of fixed-length codes, where as the image data-segments

consists of variable-length code blocks. As shown in Figure 1.2, the image data blocks

8
constitute the bottom most layer of the MPEG stream. [5] is a comprehensive reference

on MPEG. Other muhimedia standards have adapted similar organization.

During the transmission of coded data stream, transmission error can occur

anywhere. It may be in the control segments or in the data segments. Since the format of

the control segments is fixed, the control information can be coded using some error-

correcting codes to recover the mformation, in case of any transmission error. Adding

limited amount of error correction code to a control segment is tolerable, as its size is far

smaller than a data segment. Furthermore, it is also necessary for the decoder to decode

all control segments completely and correctly in order to be able to decode the data

segments correctly. Using the same error correction coding method for data segments

may not be practical, because it may increase the total code size significantly and hence

affect the bit rate, which must be maintained to get the desired compression. Furthermore,

in the case of wireless transmission, the bandwidth may not be available to transmit the

significant amount of error-correction codes needed to protect the data segments.

In this thesis, we concentrate on coding of data segments only. Our objective is to

increase the error resiliency of the data part without increasing any overhead, so that the

desired compression ratio is maintained and no extra bandwidth is needed. Here, we

assume that the control-information is protected using error-correcting codes.

* Error resihency coding is explained in a later chapter.

 1.5 Network Transmission

1.5.1 Wireline versus Wireless Transmission

As the name itself implies, wireline transmission involves transmission of data

over guided media such as thick-net, whereas wireless transmission involves transmission

of data over a wireless channel such as satellites links.

Because of the fiandamental differences m the physical characteristics of

transmission media, wireless communication imposes certain restrictions, which do not

hold for wirehne communication. The most important constraint is the limited bandwidth

of a wireless channel. Multimedia data, especially video, require large bandwidth, which

is generally not available in wireless channel. Another constraint in wireless

communication is the extent of transmission errors. Even though the types of

transmission errors such as single-bit errors, burst errors and intermittent loss of

connection are basically the same in both wireline and wireless communication, because

of the higher noise level in a wireless channel, the error rate is much higher In this thesis,

we concentrate on the effects on VLCs due to a single-bit error though our algorithms

hold in case of burst error also.

1.5.2 Error Handhng

For wireless communication, many error protection schemes such as forward

error correcting codes (FEC) are used to protect data. Most of these schemes are not very

Any discussion on the cause of these errors is beyond the scope of this report.

10
much attractive for wireless communication, because adding FEC codes in the worst-case

design would add prohibitive amount of additional codes and thus cause redundancy in

the data. An alternate solution is to re-transmit erroneous data, but this solution is also not

practical in most situations, because it incurs additional delays. Therefore, error resilience

coding, discussed in the next chapter, is a very attractive solution. This thesis

concentrates on the organization of error resihent entropy coding of variable-length

coded data.

11
 CHAPTER 2

ERROR RESILIENCE CODING

2.1 Need for Error Resihence Coding

Since the capacity of wireless charmels is Umited, it may not be feasible to protect

all kinds of information in a multimedia stream using error-correcting codes. The reason

is that error-correcting code add significant amount of data, which may drop the data rate

and thus affect visual presentation of the stream at the receiving end significantly.

Therefore, error resihent coding is needed for transmission of audio and video data,

which can tolerate a limited amount of transmission error in the data. The overall

objective is to provide error protection, using limited amount of additional code, in such a

way that in face of errors, maximum amount of data is recovered. This objective is

reahzed by coding different segments (e.g., in MPEG [5]) differently and by organizing

data in a manner that in presence of errors, the receiver is able to skip potentially

erroneous data and restart at a later stage. The advantage of this approach is that it allows

for gracefiil degradation of transmission quality as the error rate increase m the chaimel.

2.2 Error Resihence Coding Schemes

A summary of the error resihence schemes is presented below.

12
2.2.1 Resynchronization and Localization

Channel errors can cause loss of synchronization at the receiver end. This loss

could be due to insertion and/or deletion of bits, which could be due to instability of the

clock. Bit errors can also cause loss of synchronization, if variable length codes are used.

When compression schemes with memory are used, i.e., those compression schemes in

which the codes generated for the new symbols depend upon the previous symbols, errors

due to synchronization losses may propagate until synchronization is regained.

One way of introducing resilience to this type of errors is to localize the effect of

error. This is usually done by inserting periodically some unique synchronization code

words in the stream such as in MPEG 2 [5] and H.263 [6]. In order to differentiate them

from data, the synchronization code words are generally quite long, and therefore, should

be used relatively infrequently. For a coding scheme with memory, insertion of

synchronization codes alone may not be sufficient, and the coding scheme may have to

be periodically restarted. For example, MPEG-2 encodes a frame fiilly (intra mode) in

every sequence of 132 frames for this reason.

The above solution is sufficient to prevent catastrophic losses for all types of

channel errors mentioned above. Certain measures have also been proposed to target

errors caused due to use of variable-length codes. As shown in section 1.3.2, use of

variable length codes can lead to propagation of errors, because an error in a codeword

may make the decoder not detect a synchronization marker. A simple solution to prevent

this failure, possibly at the cost of coding efficiency, is to use fixed length code words.

Another way, which is more elegant and provides re-synchronization, is to use EREC

13
algorithm [1]. The objective is to localize effects of errors and still not reduce codmg

efficiency. EREC is discussed in detail in the next chapter.

2.2.2 Unequal Error Protection

In image and video data streams, some segments may be more important than the

others. For example, a loss of the information on the quantization levels and motion

vectors is more damaging than the loss of information on DCT coefficients. Even among

DCT coefficients, the DC coefficient and lower frequency coefficients contribute more

to the reconstruction of the image than the higher frequency coefficients. Hence, if the

capacity of the channel is limited, different levels of protection should be accorded as per

the importance of the information.

In MPEG 2, unequal error protection is provided by adapting scalable coding,

where the bit stream is divided into several layers. The quality of received video

improves as data from successively higher layers are received and used to reconstruct

video frames. The data transmitted as part of lower layers is usually more important and

is given higher protection.

2.2.3 Concealment

When any code incurs a transmission error, entire 8 x 8 pixel blocks may have to

be dropped from the decoded image. A good approximation of these lost blocks can be

obtained by using data already available at the receiver. The simplest method would be to

replace the block with the previous block.

14
 2.3 Summary of the Literature Survey

Apart from the error resilience coding approaches discussed in the previous

sections, various other methods have also been studied in the literature. In [2], Wee Sun

Lee et al. discuss a method of that uses H.261 [25-26] error protected headers as

synchronization flags as well. This avoids the need of an explicit synchronization code

word. In the same paper, they discuss various other means to code the start codes in a

H.261 code stream, so that they fimction also as parity bits. In [11], Soon et al. propose a

scheme to improve the robustness of a H.263 video coder by combining source and

channel coding [12-14], to selectively protect error sensitive bits in the encoded video bit

stream. References [15-24] discuss numerous other approaches for the same problem

Almost all the approaches discussed are either specific to a standard like H.261 or

require addition of code to the data stream. In the next chapter, we present the approach

discussed in [1], which is general and can be adapted to any compression scheme.

15
 CHAPTER 3

ERROR RESILIENT ENTROPY CODE ALGORITHM

3.1 Objective

This chapter describes the Error Resihent Entropy Code (EREC) algorithm

presented m [1]. This algorithm is the basis of the research described m the next two

chapters. The objective of EREC is to mtroduce error resihency in a stream of blocks,

each containing an arbitrary number of symbols coded usmg an encoder that generates

VLCs. The resihency is achieved without adding any additional data to the stream so that

the entropy of the coded output is not affected. It also has the property of gracefijl

degradation in face of increased channel errors, i.e., the amount of data discarded during

decoding due to transmission errors increase only with an increase in the number of

transmission errors.

3.2 Approach

EREC algorithm can be cascaded to any entropy encoder as a second pass. The

fimction of this pass is to reorganize the variable length code blocks generated by the

native encoder so that location of the beginning of the code of each block in the bit

stream can be determined knowing the block number. The main advantage is that in case

the decoder fails to decode a block, it can skip some amount of code bits and resume

decoding at the beginning of the next block. To realize this approach, EREC packs data

in a structure.

16
 The EREC follows a block control strategy. Each block is a prefix code, which

means that in absence of any channel errors, the decoder can detect end of block without

any reference to previous or foUowing code block.

The EREC structure is composed of N slots of length Sfbits to give a total length

T = Z i=i Si bits to transmit. It is assumed that both the encoder and decoder know the

values of N. Each EREC structure can be used to transmit up to N variable-length blocks

of data, each of length bi, provided the total data to be coded does not exceed the total T

bits available.

R = T - Z^i=ibi >0 3 1

The difference R (of the total data to be coded and the data transmitted) represents the

amount of space that may go unused for every N blocks. In order to minimize this

redundancy, a suitable value of T must either be known in advance or transmitted as

highly protected side information. The slot lengths Si can be predefined as a fimction of T

and N and, therefore, they need not be transmitted for each structure (Note that an EREC

structure is the smallest unit of transmission). A heuristic illustration to compute slot

sizes Si from the given value of T could be as follows. Let N be a muhiple of some fixed

integer, say p, i.e. N = p * N . Let k = T/N denote the average size of slots. Then

LT/NJ + [(m -l)/p] < k < LT/NJ + m/p for some integer 1< m < p. Among every p

consecutive slots, first m of them are of size T T / N ] and the next (p-m) are of size LT/NJ.

For larger input, it is necessary to split the input into several groups of N blocks, each of

which is coded using EREC.

17
 The EREC places the variable-length blocks of data into the EREC structure by

using a bit reorganization algorithm that rehes only on the abihty to determme the end of

each block. Thus, in the absence of channel errors, the decoder can exactly follow the

same bit re-organization. We present this packing method using an example.

Figure 3.1 shows a sample example of the operation of the EREC reorganization

algorithm for a sequence of blocks of lengths 10,9,4,3,9,6, and 6 equal length slots Si=7

bits.

The algorithm is iterative and packs data into slots in successive stages. In the

first stage, the algorithm places each block of data Bi to a corresponding code slot Sj.

Starting from the begiiming of each block, all or as many bits as possible are placed

within the corresponding slot. Thus, blocks with an equal number of bits to those

available in the corresponding slot, i.e., bi = Si are coded completely, leaving the slot fiall.

Blocks with bi < Si are coded completely, leaving the slot with Si - bi bit space unused.

Blocks with bi > Si have Si bits coded to fill the slot and leave bi - Si bits remaining to be

coded. For example in Figure 3.1, blocks 1, 2, and 5 have bi > Si, and blocks 3, 4, and 6

have bi<Si. Thus, at the end of stage 1, slots 1, 2, and 5 arefiall,whereas slots 3, 4, and 6

have space left to code data for blocks 1, 2, and 5.

18
 1
2
3
4
Stage 1 5
6
a

1
2
3
Stage 2 4
5
6 •••••••••••••••••••••^^

Stage 3
2
3
4
5
6
mmmMmm0MmMM&

•
IlllllillllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllillJll

n •
IIIIIIIIIIIIIH*S:|:S|:^ ^^^^^H
^^^^^^^1
^H

1
2
Staje 6 3
4
5
6

• Empty Bit Block Block Block

IBit 2 Bit 3 Bit
Block Block ra Block
4 Bit 5 Bit 6 Bit

Figure 3.1. EREC bit reorganization algorithm

19
 In subsequent stages of the algorithm, each block with data still to be coded

searches for slots with unused space. In stage n, block i searches slot SR, k= !+(()„ (modulo

N), where (j)n is a predefined offset sequence. If the slot Sk, searched by a block has some

space available, then all or as many bits as possible of Bi are placed within that slot. In

Figure 3.1, the offset sequence is 0,1,2,3,4,5. Thus, m stage 2, the offset is 1, and each

block, which is yet to be packed completely, searches the followuig slot. Figure 3.1(b)

shows that by the end of stage 2, one bit from block 5 has been placed m the space

remaining m slot 6 and two bits of block2 have been placed in slot 3.

Provided 3.1 is satisfied, which is true for the given example, then there is enough

space to pack data of aU blocks, and all the bits can be placed within N stages of the

algorithm. Figure 3.1(d) shows that by the end of stage 6, ah the data has been packed

The decoder can foHow this algorithm by decoding each variable-length block

data as it goes along until it detects the end of each block. At that point, it knows that the

remaining contents of the slot correspond to data from other blocks packed at a later stage

in the algorithm. In absence of any channel errors, the decoder can obtain the original

block codes prior to bit organization, packed by the encoder.

A decoder that can handle channel errors can be constructed as follows. While

decoding a slot, if the decoder hits a bit sequence, which is not a vahd code or prefix of a

code, it detects an error. It marks the blocks B and slot S as erroneous, and skips to the

next block, because the starting location of the next block is known. In subsequent stages,

if it determines that a block B' is continued to S, i.e., at stage k, S = B' + (j) i, (modulo N),

it declares B' to be erroneous as well.

20
 The foUowmg describes the error handhng in EREC:

1. In EREC, if there is an erroneous block within a slot, all other blocks within the

slot are also set as erroneous since the EOB of the erroneous block may not be

correctly identified. Also the slot is set to be erroneous.

2. A correct searching block becomes erroneous, if it searches an erroneous slot.

3. A correct slot with space becomes erroneous, if it is searched by an erroneous

block.

3.3 Limitations of EREC Algorithm

The EREC algorithm packs N blocks of data in N slots, so that very less or no

space is wasted. As a result, h may have to pack some large than average size blocks by

fragmenting it, into more than one slot and it may take up to N stages to pack all blocks.

If a slot is determined to have incurred a transmission error during a stage, many blocks,

which may not have even been packed in that slot may be declared erroneous and

discarded. We illustrate this fact using an example (Figure 3.2).

1 1
2 2
9

3 99

3 2
4 99

4 1

Figure 3.2 Propagation of error in EREC structure

Figure 3.2 shows the placement of 4 blocks with block 1 and 2 packed in two parts each
9 9 J 9 9 »

2 is packed in stage 2 and 1 in stage 4. Now if 2 is detected to be erroneous, it would

21
cause the decoder to declare slot 3 erroneous. When in stage 3, the decoder tries to search

for 1 in slot 3, it finds that the slot is erroneous and declares 1 to be erroneous as well.

This is because the decoder has no way to determine that 1 was not packed m slot 3.

Thus, an error in a block could propagate to other blocks yet to be decoded completely. In

the worst case, because of a single bit error, up to N/2 blocks may be declared erroneous.

A solution to reduce probability of error propagation is to pack blocks so that

fewer blocks get fragmented and it should take lesser stages to pack all the blocks. This is

the topic of study in the next two chapters.

22
 CHAPTER 4

BI-DIRECTIONAL ERROR RESILIENT ENTROPY CODE ALGORITHM

4.1 Objective

The main aim of our research was to find ways of knproving the EREC algorithm

in view of its limitations discussed in section 3.3. Our study led to the development of Bi-

directional Error Resihent Entropy Code (BiEREC) algorithm.

The objective of the proposed BiEREC algorithm is to increase the error

resihency of EREC without adding any overhead/redundancy and without changing the

basic idea behind the EREC algorithm. The improvements described in this chapter aim

to decrease the fragmentation of blocks between slots so that if a block is corrupted due

to transmission error, the error is localized and lesser number of blocks are discarded than

in the EREC algorithm. The idea behind these improvements is that for the same amount

of error during transmission, lesser amount of data should be lost when compared to the

data loss that would occur in EREC, and hence BiEREC should show an mcrease in error

resihency over EREC.

The next chapter presents experimental results that show that BiEREC performs

better in terms of error resiliency (Chapter 2) over EREC.

23
 4.2 Improvements to EREC

This section introduces the three improvements we have incorporated into the

EREC algorithm.

4.2.1 Bi-directional Packing

In EREC algorithm, as explained in the previous chapter, blocks are coded and

data is packed in the forward direction moving from left to right so that the first code bit

of a block always faUs at the left boundary of the slot. Since slot size is known, decoder

can skip the current slot and start decoding at the left boundary of the next slot, which is

the first bit of next block, in case of bit error. We observed that the left boundary of a

block is the same as the right boundary of the previous slot. Therefore, the decoder can

skip the same way to the right boundary of the current slot and start decoding. For this

idea to work, the data must be placed in the backward direction, starting from the right

end of the slot. This idea is basis of BiEREC algorithm presented in this chapter. Here the

blocks are packed in both directions, i.e., the first code block is placed starting at the left

slot boundary and the second code block is placed from the right slot boundary but

moving in the backward direction. Any space left in the center of the slot is used to pack

some other block.

In order to accommodate two blocks in a slot, the slot size is set to twice the

average block size. The main advantage of doubling the slot size is that it increases the

24
probability that at least one block gets completely packed in a slot, thereby reducing the

fragmentation of the blocks.

4.2.2 Block Interleaving

In variable-length coded images and/or video frames, the size of code block vary

significantly because some unage blocks contain too many image details and thus more

code is needed to describe them than other blocks. TypicaUy, a sequence of longer blocks

is followed by shorter blocks. If the blocks are packed in First In-First Out (FIFO) order,

more blocks are likely to fit within one slot in one part of input image and not even a

single block fits in the slot in other part of image. This increases fragmentation To

reduce fragments, we pair two blocks, which are some fixed distance apart in the block

sequence. This should increase the probability of both blocks being packed completely in

a slot. This is realized by dividing block sequence into subsequences of blocks of length

N, and then interleaving them.

4.2.3 Changing the Search Order

EREC algorithm is iterative. If a block, say k, is notfijUycoded by (i-1)* stage, it

searches the slot, (k+i) mod N, to see if it contains any space for continuation of the k^

block (see section 3.2). Therefore it takes N stages to pack an EREC structure of N slots

Further, because slots are scanned in sequential order for locating free spaces, EREC

algorithm ends up not finding any free space in several stages (at least during the later

part of packing). If the packing of blocks is completed in much later stages,

25
fragmentation is higher. In BiEREC, we have tried to take advantage of the way blocks

are coded in a typical image or video frame. As stated in the previous section, in a

sequence of image blocks, generally there is a sequence of longer blocks foUowed by

shorter blocks. So, m the initial stages of the packing of blocks, there should be more

probability of findmg free space in slots some distance apart rather than slots m the

unmediate vicinity. Hence the search order hi BiEREC has been modified and is not

linear as in EREC.

In BiEREC, the total slot space is initially divided into two halves and space for

overflowing blocks in the first half are searched in the second half and vice versa. In the

second stage, each of the two initial halves is fijrther divided into two halves and the

search carried out in the similar fashion (detailed description is given in 4 3) By

searching in this order, the number of stages when BiEREC is either unable to pack

fragments of any blocks or able to pack little is reduced. This in turn reduces

fragmentation of blocks.

4.3 BiEREC Algorithm

BiEREC extends the basic idea of EREC, i.e., it also reorganizes the variable

length code blocks, generated by the native encoder, so that the location of the beginning

of code of each block in the bit stream can be determined knowing the block number. To

realize this approach, BiEREC similar to EREC, packs coded data stream in a sequence

of BiEREC structures.

26
 The BiEREC structure is composed of N slots {Si}, where N is a power of 2, and

Si is the size of slot Si. Let T = Z^i=i Si denote the total size of the structure. Each BiEREC

structure is used to pack and transmit 2*N variable-length blocks {Bi} of data. Let bi

denote the length of Bi.

2*N
R=T-I bi>0 4.1
i=l

R represents the extra space left unused in a BiEREC structure. In order to minimize this

empty space, T should be chosen for each BiEREC structure separately. The slot lengths

Si can be predefined as a fiinction of T and N and, can be obtained from T The method

used for computation of T is as foUows: First, the next 2N coded blocks are obtained

from the native encoder and B, the sum of their code size is obtained. One choice is to set

Si = r B/N 1 for each slot. This choice may lead to wastage of up to N-1 bits per BiEREC.

Since N is very smaU compared to B, this waste is minuscule. Another choice is to

choose slots of size so that consecutive slots differ by 1, i.e., |si - Si.i| = 1. We foUowed

this choice. The decoder must know T, in order for it to be able to locate boundary of

slots. Hence, value of T is coded separately and transmitted as highly protected side

information.

The BiEREC algorithm places the variable-length blocks of data into the BiEREC

structure by using a bh reorganization algorithm that relies only on its ability to

determine the end of each block. Thus, in the absence of channel errors, the decoder can

exactly follow the same bit re-organization.

27
 Like EREC, BiEREC algorithm is iterative. In each stage, given a slot, it tries to

pack any unpacked part of a corresponding block. InitiaUy, the next 2N blocks of the

coded data are arranged in pairs of blocks (Bi, BN+I), denoted by pi, 1 < i < N. Bi is caUed

the left block and BN+I is called the right block of the pair. In the first stage, the algorithm

places the blocks of the pair pi into a corresponding slot Si. Startmg with the beginning of

the left block Bi of each pair pi, all or as many bits of Bi as possible are placed with the

placement starting from the left boundary of the slot Si and going in the forward

direction. Then, starting with the beginning of each right block Bi+N, all or as many bits

as possible are placed with the placement starting from the right boundary of S, going in

the backward direction. Thus, in case, bi + bN+i = Si, blocks Bj and BJ.N are packed

completely and slot Si is fiih. If (bi + bN+i) < Si, the blocks are packed completely, leaving

the slot Si with Si - (bi + bN+i) bit space unused. If (bi + bn+i) > Si, the slot Si isfialland

leave (bi+ bN+i)- Si bits in Bi and/or Bi+N remaining to be packed.

In subsequent stages the algorithm searches for slots with spaces for blocks yet to

be fiilly packed. In stage n, it searches slot i+(|)n (modulo N) for blocks of pair pi, where ())„

is a predefined offset sequence. In BiEREC, the offset sequence is different from the

cychc sequence used in EREC. If N is the number of slots ( N is a power of 2), the offset

sequence is 0, N/2, N/2', 3N/2^ N/2^ 3N/2^ 5N/2^ 7N/2^ N/2^ 3N/2^ 5N/2^ 7N/2\

9N/2^ llN/2^ 13N/2^ 15N/2%nd so on tih (N-1) N/2'°^2^ The advantage of this search

order is given in section 4.2.3. If the searched slot has some space available, then all or

as many code bits as possible are placed in that slot. Among the two blocks of a pair, the

priority of packing, i.e., which block gets to be packed first, ahernates between the two

28
for each successive stage of the iteration. In the first stage, left block of a pair is tried first

and in any remaining space, the right block is packed. In the next stage, right block is

tried first and then the left block. The direction of packing remains the same, i.e., left

block is packed in the forward direction going from left to right and right block of the

pair is packed in the backward dhection.

Provided 4.1 is satisfied, then there is enough space to pack data of ah blocks in

every BiEREC structure, and all the bits can be placed within N stages of the algorithm.

We exhibit the above procedure by taking an example. Figure 4.1 shows a sample

example of the operation of the reorganization algorithm for eight blocks of code size 11,

9, 4, 3, 9, 6, 10, 4 by placing them in 4 slots (N = 4) of length Si=14 bits each. The blocks

are represented by pairs (11,9), (9,6), (4,10) and (3,4). In Figure 4.1, N =4 and so the

offset sequence is 0,2,1,3.

During the first stage, the algorithm packs left blocks Bi, B2, B3, B4 starting with

the left boundary and then attempts to pack the right blocks B5, Be, B7, Bg in the

remaining spaces of the four slots. At the end of stage 1 (Figure 4.1 a), slots 1,2 and 3 are

completely filled and slot 4 has 7 bits of unused space. The number of bits that remain to

be packed of the four pairs are (0,6), (0,1), (0,0) and (0,0). Note that (0,0) denotes a fiilly

packed pair.

29
 1
Stage 1 2
3
4 y///////'

•
1
Stage 2 2
3
4

Stage 3 3
4

Stage 4 1
2
3
4

D Empty Bit Block nji Block Block ^ Block

1 Bit 2 Bit 3 Bit 4Rit
Block g Block Block in Block
5 Bit 6 Bit 7Bh 8Bk

Figure 4.1. BiEREC bit reorganization algorithm

30
 In the second stage, the algorithm attempts to pack pah" pi and p2 of length (0,5)

and (0,1) in slots S3 and S4, respectively (other two pairs are aheady fiilly packed). It

packs the right block of the pah* first and hence succeeds in packing right block of p2 in

slot S4 (see Figure 4.1 b). At the end of stage 2, the number of bits to be packed of the

four blocks are (0,6), (0,0) (0,0) and (0,0).

In the third stage, the algorithm attempts to pack pi in slot S2, since offset is 1 It

checks the left block of the pairs first and then right block. No data is packed in this

stage. In the fourth stage, the algorithm attempts to pack pi m slot S4, smce offset is 3. It

packs the right block of pi first. The final structure after packing is shown in Figure 4.1 d.

The decoder can follow this algorithm while decoding the variable-length block

data as it goes along until it detects the end of each block. At that point, it knows that the

remaining contents of the slot belong to other blocks, placed m some later stages of the

BiEREC algorithm. To explain the above in a bit more detail, in the first stage, starting

from the left boundary of each slot, the decoder starts decoding until it decodes EOB

marker or hits the end of slot. If EOB is reached, the decoder knows that it has

completely decoded the block. Then it starts decoding from the right boundary of that slot

until it reaches either EOB of the right block of the current pair or the point where the

decoder had stopped decodmg from the left direction. If it reaches EOB, then the right

block is completely decoded. Else, the block has an overflow m some other slots. For

input of Figure 4.1, at the end of stage 1, h would extract the following partial segments

of the four pairs (11,3), (9,5), (4,10) and (3,4). In the subsequent stages, each pair with

data stih to be decoded continues searching for slots not fiilly decoded (i.e., slots with

31
space remaining). Decoder uses the same offset sequence as by the encoder. If the slot

searched by a pair has some space available, then the decoder starts decodhig. As in the

encoder, the decoder also ahernates its direction of decodmg for each stage. So, in the

stage 2, it reads from the right and then proceeds from the left.

4.4 Handling of Channel Errors

In the absence of any transmission errors, the decoder can obtain the original

block codes used by the encoder for bit organization. A decoder that can handle channel

errors can be constructed as foUows. The idea here is the similar to the one used for

EREC decoder (see section 3.2). While decoding a slot, if the decoder hits a bit sequence,

which is not a vahd code or prefix of a code, it detects an error. It marks the current block

b erroneous, and tries to decode reading in the opposite direction from the other end of

the slot. If this block is also detected to be erroneous, it marks the current slot s as

erroneous, and skips the rest of the slot and begins with the next block since the starting

location of the next block is known. In subsequent stages, if it determines that a block b'

is continued into slot s, i.e., at stage k, s = b' + (}) R (modulo N), h declares b' to be

erroneous as weU.

4.5 Implementation of BiEREC Algorithm

The main data structure of BiEREC algorithm represents the BiEREC structure.

One choice is to use a two dimensional array of size N x M, where N is the number of

slots and M is a pre-chosen integer that denotes the maximum fragments of blocks that

32
can be packed in any slot. Each row represents a slot and each column represents a

possible fragment of some block. Another choice for BiEREC structure is to use an array

of linked hsts. Here, a node is added to the linked list for each fragment of the block

placed in a slot. We chose 2D array as our data structure because array implementation is

faster and computational overhead is a constraint for streaming muhimedia services over

wireless channels.

A simphfied description of the decoder algorithm is given below to highlight its

handling of bit errors.

There are two arrays Left_error [N] and Right_error [N], each of which indicate

whether corresponding slot has an error while decoding from the left or right direction,

respectively.

s \N] represents the slot structure.

offset_array [N] stores the offset sequence.

(Note that these are only representative of the data structures used in the actual code and

are not exact definitions.)

1. Initialize Left_error [i] and Right_error [i] flags to NO_ERROR, i = 1 ... N

2. Initialize aU the slots s [i] as NOT_ERRONEOUS, i = 1 ... N

3. Calculate the offset sequence for given N and store it in offset_array [N].

4. Initialize stagecounter =1;

5. Loop for slotindex = 1 ... N

6. Set offset_slot_index = (slotjndex + offset_array [stage_counter]) Mod N.

33
7. if (Left_error [offset_slot_mdex] = NO_ERROR) and (s [offset_slot_index] =

NOTERRONEOUS)

Start decoding from left.

If block is detected to be erroneous

Set Lefterror [offset_slot_index]= ERROR.

Else

Put the block into the corresponding pair, with its position in

the pair i.e. left or right, determined by the stage number.

Else

Declare block to be erroneous.

8. if (Right_error [offset_slot_index] = NO_ERROR) and (s [offset_slot_index]=

NOTERRONEOUS)

Start decoding from right.

If block is detected to be erroneous

Set Right_error [offset_slot_index] = ERROR.

Else

Put the block into the corresponding pair, with its position in

the pair i.e. left or right, determined by the stage number.

34
 Else

Declare block to be erroneous.

9. if (Lefterror [offset_slotJndex]= ERROR) and (Right_error [offset_slot_mdex] =

ERROR)

Set s [offset_slot_index]= ERRONEOUS.

10. End Loop

11. Increment stagecounter

12. Perform steps from 5 - 1 0 until all slots are completely decoded.

From the above algorithm, the foUowhig can be implied about error handling:

1. In BiEREC, if there are erroneous left and right blocks, all the blocks with

fragments between these erroneous blocks are also declared erroneous, because

the EOB of the erroneous blocks cannot be identified. Also the slot is set to be

erroneous. This observation holds whenever the decoder detects two errors in a

slot, one while decoding data in the forward dkection and the other while

decoding in the backward direction.

2. A correct searching block will become erroneous if it searches an erroneous slot

Although h is possible that the slot might not have had any room for the current

block and the block might have been packed in another slot in a later stage, until

the EOB of the block is correctly decoded, there is no way of knowing if a

35
 fragment of the block was placed in erroneous slot. Hence it has to be declared

erroneous.

3. An erroneous slot will remain erroneous.

4. An erroneous block will remam erroneous.

4.6 Summary of BiEREC Improvements

In the previous sections, we presented the improvements made to the EREC

algorithm. To summarize, we are pack data in slots from both directions, interleave the

blocks and perform search for free spaces in a different order. We provide in the next

chapter some metrics to measure improvements and results of the experiments. Here we

demonstrate advantages of these improvements and their effect on error resiliency by

taking an example. It is the same example given in Figure 4.1. In Figure 4.2, we show

packing of the same 8 blocks by using EREC algorithm. Note that number of slots is also

8 for the EREC algorithm.

1
2
liiiiiniii ••111
3 ii
4
5
6 iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiin^
7

Figure 4.2 Blocks of Figure 4.1 packed using EREC algorithm

Figure 4.2 shows the final slot structure after completely packing the same blocks in

Figure 4.1. EREC takes 8 stages. We now show that BiEREC indeed reduces the

36
fragmentation of blocks, which directly translates into higher error resihency as the

propagation of errors is reduced. Here we use a simple metric to measure fragmentation.

We define fragmentation as:

f = Total Number of block fragments/ Total slot size.

For the case of BiEREC,

2+2+2+4
f= =0.17.
14*4

For the case of EREC,

1+1+3+3+1+2+1+2
f= =0.25.
7*8

The above values show that BiEREC method of packing does reduce fragmentation.

37
 Error
Location EREC
BiEREC

^ 7
14 \^

1 5 ^ X^ 7. - ^
2 6
1 2 I
3 7 1»

4 1
4 5 6 8
5
6 r
7
8 7'

Figure 4.3 Error propagation due to a single bh error

Let us now compare BiEREC with EREC in terms of data loss, i.e., blocks

affected, due to a single bh error. Assume that an error has occurred in bit position 14

while transmission, for both BiEREC and EREC structures, as shown in Figure 4 3 Note

that the structures in Figure 4.3 are the same as in the previous examples of Figure 4.1

and Figure 4.2. Now we shah do a stage-by-stage decodmg of the structures and find out

how many blocks are affected due to this bit error.

Table 4.1 Stage-by-stage decoding for BiEREC

Stage Number Blocks completely decoded Blocks Slots affected

affected
1 1,2,3,4,7,8 5 1
2 6 - -
3 - - -
4 - - 4

38
 Table 4.1 shows the stage-by-stage decoding of the BiEREC structure of Figure

4.3. In the first stage, we find that aU the blocks except 5 and 6 are completely decoded.

Also the decoder finds that block 5 is in error and so declares h to be erroneous. It also

declares slot 1 to be erroneous (see sections 4.3, 4.4, 4.5). In the next stage, it completely

decodes block 6, because slot 4 is still vahd. The erroneous block 5 searches in slot 3 in

the same stage, but since the slot is completely decoded, it does not get affected. At the

end of 4 stages, we find from Table 4.1 that ah the blocks except block 5 are decoded

completely.

Table 4.2 Stage-by-stage decoding for EREC

Stage Number Blocks completely decoded Blocks Slots affected

affected
1 3,4,6,8 2 2
2 7 1 3
3 - - 4
4 - - -
5 - - -
6 - - -
7 - - -

8 - 5 1

Table 4.2 shows the stage-by-stage decoding for EREC structure. In the first

stage, decoder finds block 2 to be erroneous and hence declares slot 2 to be erroneous

(see Chapter 3). In the second stage, block 1 tries to search hi slot 2. Since slot 2 is

erroneous, block 1 also gets affected. From Table 4.3, we can see that at the end of 8

stages, blocks 1, 2 and 5 are affected due to a bh error at 14. So, using this simple

comparison, we can say that BiEREC looses lesser blocks than EREC for the same

amount of errors, i.e., it has higher error resiliency.

39
 As a side note, suppose the bit error was at position 28. In this case, we can see

that BiEREC looses blocks 5 and 6. But, for EREC, only block 5 gets affected. So, even

though BiEREC looses lesser blocks than EREC for most of the cases (see section 5.3.2),

there may be a very few situations where EREC may give a better resuh than BiEREC.

40
 CHAPTER 5

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

5.1 Objective

This chapter describes results of some experiments performed to measure

improvements rendered by BiEREC over EREC algorithm. Two approaches are applied:

one approach is to compute statistics such as (1) reduction in the number of blocks

packed in multiple slots, (2) reduction m the separation between muhiple fragments of a

block and (3) average number of blocks which may have to be discarded in case of a bh

error. Another approach is to introduce random errors in the bh stream and measure the

visual effects of the omission of blocks discarded, by the decoder Details of

implementation of both approaches are described next.

5.2 Input Data

During the course of this thesis work, separate programs that simulate the

encoding and decoding of EREC and BiEREC algorithm were developed. In order to

examine the effectiveness of the two coding methods, JPEG compressed images were

used as input data.

To briefly explain JPEG compression algorithm, first the image is split into

blocks of 8 X 8 pixels. These blocks are transformed using an eight-point DCT separably

in horizontal and vertical directions. The 8 x 8 transform coefficients are quantized using

a scalar quantizer. The quahty of the coded picture and the compression ratio can be

41
varied by adjusting the step size of the quantizer. The 8 x 8 quantized coefficients are

scanned in a zigzag order from low frequencies to high frequencies. The nonzero

coefRcients for each block are run length coded to produce data words that consist of run-

length and level. These data words together whh an EOB word are coded as variable-

length code words using Huflhnan coding (see section 1.2). Thus, each variable-length

block consists of a number of variable-length code words terminated by an EOB code

word. To know more about JPEG standard, see [7] and [4]. Due to both presence of EOB

code word and the prefix nature of Huffinan coding, each variable-length block satisfies

all constraints for the EREC and BiEREC, which are:

1. Each variable-length block must be a prefix code.

2. The information contained within each variable-length block is causal in the

sense that channel errors affect current and following data only.

We used two weh-known images as test input; these are shown in Figure 5 1 Gold

and Figure 5.2 Lena. Gold is highly 'blocky'. It means that the size of block codes vary

widely. If the image is scanned from top to bottom, then the block sequence is such that

some consecutive blocks are of code length higher than the average and some later blocks

are of length lower than the average. This helps in testing the advantage of interleaving

feature of the BiEREC algorithm. Lena was chosen, because h is widely used to report

image compression results in literature.

The simulations have been carried out

• ushig the EREC coding structure.

• using the BiEREC coding structure.

42
 WTIIIIfPJWWHJWW^^
R^^^'IM!^!!'!'!^

Figure 5.1 Gold Image

Figure 5.2 Lena Image

43
Parameters of EREC and BiEREC structures are basicaUy the same except that these are

N slots in EREC and N/2 slots in BiEREC. However, both pack the same N blocks per

structure. For example, if N is 256 for BiEREC, then N is 512 for EREC so that number

of blocks packed into a single structure is 512.

For simulations, we considered only the data part of the JPEG compressed data

and ignored the JPEG headers that contain the control information. Our assumption is

that the header is protected by using error-correcting codes, as h is necessary for the

header to be correctly decoded in order to decode the data stream that follows h.

5.3 Simulation Resuhs

This section reports resuhs of two simulations; one simulates BiEREC packing

algorithm and the other EREC algorithm. Three sets of results are given. The objective of

the first set is to measure the extent of fragmentation of each block. The second set

measures effect of propagation of an error, and the third set shows the effect of errors on

decoded images.

5.3.1 Measurement of Packing Efficiency of Encoders

To compare the packing efficiency of the encoder, we developed a metric, which

we call 'packing-offset-quotient'. This metric is a measurement of fragmentation of

blocks that result due to packing of the block codes into BiEREC/EREC structures.

Packing-offset-quotient is defined for EREC structure first due to its simplicity. Consider

the t EREC structure packed during coding of an image. Let Bj denote a block of length

44
bi, and Si denote a slot of length Si, i=0,l,...,N-l. Let the encoder divide Bi into ni

fragments and pack the k* segment, Bik, in the slot Sik, k = 1, 2, ..., ni, ni > 1.

Let bik denote the starting position of the k* segment in the slot Sik- Therefore, sequence

Sik, k= 1,2, ..., n i is a subsequence of i, i + 1, ..., N-1, 0,1,..., i - 1 , considering that search

order is defined as Oi = (i+1) mod N, where i is the stage number.

Let d i k denote the separation between the placement of two consecutive

fragments, Bik-i and Bik. It denotes the sum of ah slots between ik-i and i k exclusive, and

position of Bik in Sik; ie. bik.

ik-i
d i k = E Si +bik
i=ik-i+l

Let us consider the example shown in Figure 5.2. Block 5 in the example has 3 segments,

in slots 4, 5 and 6. Segment in slot 5 is the initial placement and segment at slot 4 is the

final one. (Search order is cyclic). So we have for each segment,

d5i = 0, d 5 2 = 6 , d 5 3 = 6 + 7 + 7 + 7+7 + 7 + 6 = 41.

ni N- 1
Letdi = Z d i k , and D^ = Z d i ,
k=l i=0

i.e., D ^ denotes the sum of displacements between consecutive fragments of ah blocks in

that structure.

N-1
Let S* = S Si, i.e., S^ denotes the size of the t ^ EREC structure in number of bhs.
i=0

The packing-offset-quotient (poq) for an image is defined as the Z D V S\ where t = 1, 2,

t

45
..., m, where m = number of blocks in the image file / N.

In few words, poq for an image is the summation of offsets of fragments of every block

from the previous placement of its fragment, with average taken over the whole knage.

The reason for considering the separation between two consecutive fragments of a block

as the basis of this metric is that EREC decoder declares remaining part of a block

erroneous if a part of the block is packed in a erroneous slot, S j (i.e., if S j is found to be

erroneous), where ik-i < j < i kand fragment Bik could be m S j. In this case, the rest of the

block Bi is not extracted from the coded stream and this part of Bi is not used in the

reconstruction of the image.

The above definition of poq can be extended for BiEREC algorithm. For the

EREC algorithm, aU the offsets are measured from the left boundary of slots. In the

BiEREC algorithm, N blocks (where N is the number of slots) are packed in the forward

direction and hence displacement of their fragments is measured from the left boundary.

The other N blocks are packed in the backward direction and hence their offsets are

measured from the right boundary of the slots.

We will take an example to show the difference. First we calculate poq of the

structure given in Figure 5.2; h was packed using EREC algorithm. There are 8 slots each

of size 7. The number of fragments and their offsets of each block are as follows:

46
Table 5.1 Offset fragments for EREC

Block Number Offset Total

of of each fragment
fragments
1 3 0+7+4+2+3 16
2 2 0+4 4
3 1 0 0
4 1 0 0
5 3 6+7+7+7+7+7 47
+6
6 1 0 0
7 2 0+4 4
8 1 0 0

The sum D for this structure is 67, and the ratio of D with size of structure is

6 7 / ( 8 * 7 ) =1.19.

So poq for EREC structure in Figure 5.2 =1.19

Now we calculate poq for the structure (which has the same set of blocks as in Figure

5.2) in Figure 5.1, which was constructed using BiEREC algorithm (Table 5.2)

Table 5.2 Offset fragments for BiEREC

Block Number Offset Total

of of each fragment
fragments
1 1 0 0
2 1 0 0
3 1 0 0
4 1 0 0
5 2 0+14+14 + 3 31
6 2 0+14 + 3 + 6 23
7 1 0 0
8 1 0 0

47
 The slot size is 14 and number of slots 4. The sum D for this structure is 54 and

the ratio of D with the size of the structure is 54/ (14 * 4) = 0.96.

So poq for BiEREC structure in Figure 5.1 = 0.96.

From the definition of poq, we can infer that higher the poq, higher is the fragmentation

of blocks.

Table 5.3 shows poq for EREC and BiEREC for the test images considering

different number of blocks per structure.

Table 5.3 Packing-Offset-Quotient for different images

Image Number of poq for poq for Ratio

Name blocks/structure EREC BiEREC
Lena 128 8.798 3.631 0.412

Lena 256 10.602 5.328 0.50

Lena 512 17.326 8.103 0.46

Gold 128 14.36 4.554 0.317

Gold 256 15.89 6.639 0.41

Gold 512 23.91 9.667 0.40

The final column in the table shows the ratio of poq of EREC over poq of BiEREC.

This ratio is far smaller than 1 in every case. This clearly indicates that BiEREC packing

method resuhs in far reduced fragmentation of blocks. Hence, output of BiEREC encoder

is less susceptible to propagation of errors. This was the goal in developing the BiEREC

algorithm.

48
 Figure 5.3 presents two graphs to show the distribution of poq of consecutive

structures of an image. Graphs plot poq of each structure considering the output of both

encoders. Note that poq of a structure is very much dependent on the characteristics of

image blocks packed in the structure. If the variation in the code size of consecutive

blocks is large, h increases fragmentation and hence poq of the structure. Another point

to be noted is that a BiEREC/EREC structure is the basic unit of transmission and the

packing should be efficient not only for the whole image but also for each individual

structure. The graph in Figure 5.3 shows that irrespective of the distribution of data in a

structure, BiEREC packing method resuhs in smaller poq for each structure. Another

observation we can make from these graphs is that variance in poq for EREC is very

large, whereas h is stable for BiEREC. This stability is due to interieaving of blocks

implemented in BiEREC.

-•-BiEREC
-*-EREC

^..y" g-. v.<.';SM.^:<jSvy^..>,v: A,.<^>•^.^u...J•M^....S^...\..\\^•^.s».•.^^V•v.^.\.^^^A^,•.•.^..•^^.„,•,ava¥l

0 5 10 15 20
BiEREC/EREC structure number

Figure 5.3 Packing-Offset-Quotient graph

49
5.3.2 Measurement of Error Propagation

When a bit error is detected in a slot, h may affect each block, a part of which

could be placed in the slot. More specificaUy, let a bh error occur in slot S R and let B j be

a block which is yet to be fiilly extracted, i.e., encoder searched Sj+i, Sj+2, .., Sk-i for free

space to pack remaining of B j fijlly. This bh error in S k will resuh in B j declared as

erroneous, i.e., a bh error can propagate to blocks yet to be extracted.

To compare error propagation properties of BiEREC and EREC algorithm, we

shnulated transmission errors over a wireless channel by msertmg random errors m the

data stream. For this simulation, a BER was assumed and based on the total code size; the

number of bh errors was computed. The locations of bit errors were randomly generated.

It was assumed that the decoder would fail to process erroneous blocks from the position

of the error bits. Note that the error bh may be in any fragment of a block, if the block

was fragmented. Objective of the simulation was to compute the number of blocks

affected and the percentage of total bits lost due to transmission errors. Affected blocks

mean those blocks in which a bit error was found and were found to be completely

unrecoverable or only partially recoverable. The percentage of bits lost is calculated as

(total bits in original image - bits recovered in erroneous hnage)

100.
total bits in original image

Resuhs of simulation are given m Table 5.4 for different BERs. The value of N for EREC

is 256 and for BiEREC is 128.

50
Table 5.4 Propagation of Errors for various BER

Image BER EREC BiEREC Ratio of

Name %Blocks %Bhs lost %Biocks %Bhs lost %Blocks
affected affected affected
Gold .001 31.31 41.91 14.5 9.975 2.15

Gold .0001 9.075 12.22 3.24 1.409 2.80

Gold .00001 1.759 2.077 0.524 0.159 3.35

Lena .001 25.81 41.155 12.2 11.685 2.11

Lena .0001 5.54 9.198 2.17 1.549 2.55

Lena .00001 0.488 0.748 0.219 0.106 2.28

Results given in Table 5.4 show that a small number of bh errors may affect a

large number of blocks in an EREC structure. However, the number of affected blocks in

BiEREC structure is less than 1/2 of EREC. To elaborate this observation, consider the

BER of 0.001 (i.e., 1 per 1000 bhs). For EREC, N is 256 and assuming average slot sizes

of 80 and that random errors are far apart, BER of 0.001 imphes that about 20 of 256

slots of a EREC structure are erroneous; h denotes about 2/25 of the structure. Resuhs

show that about 1/3 of Gold blocks are affected due to these errors and 1/4 of Lena

blocks are affected. It means that the number of blocks affected is 4-6 times of the slots

affected due to transmission error. This is an informal measurement of propagation of bh

error. The resuhs given in the last column of Table 6.2 show that error propagation

affects at least two times more number of blocks if EREC is used compared to BiEREC

51
The reason for the reduction in error propagation for BiEREC is that h packs a greater

portion of blocks per slot, and hence fewer blocks are affected.

Instead of considering a fixed number of errors per structure as per BER, next we

report resuhs of experiments obtained considering a given number of errors over the

whole Lena image. In Figure 5.4, the percentage of bhs lost is plotted for various

numbers of errors. The number of blocks per structure is 256. The graph shows that the

percentage of bhs lost increases with the number of errors. However the increase in errors

for BiEREC is substantially less than that for EREC. These graphs depict the error

propagation properties of the two algorithms. To elaborate this statement, consider

number of errors =16. With number of blocks in an EREC/BiEREC structure = 256 and

total number of blocks in Lena = 4096, it means that there is one bit error per structure. In

ideal situation, one bit error should affect only one block of the structure i.e. h should

affect only 1/4096 part (i.e., 0.025%) of the total coded image. With 16 errors, in ideal

situation, the percentage of bhs affected should be 0.4%. The plot for EREC shows that

the percentage of bhs affected is 6.25, which is roughly 16 times of 0 4 However, the

same for BiEREC is 1.2, which is only 3 times. In summary, BiEREC reduces

propagation of error significantly.

52
 - • - BiEREC
-«-EREC

0 10 15 20 25
No. of Errors

Figure 5.4 Propagation of channel errors

Another way to measure the reduction in error propagation in BiEREC is by

plotting a graph that shows error propagation between successive stages of processing of

the structure during decoding. Recah from section 4.3 that the decoder is iterative In

each heration, say i, h decodes each slot s j ; 1 < i ,j < N. If the slot is erroneous, it

declares those blocks erroneous, which are packed in the slot. Also in the succeeding

stages, all the slots that are searched by the erroneous blocks are declared erroneous and

so on.

Figure 5.5 presents the percentage of blocks affected in each stage, due to the

error detected in the previous stage. The resuhs are presented for Lena with number of

blocks = 256.

53
 •o
0)
u
(0 •^-BiEREC
w
o -jh-EREC
ffl

50 100 150 200 250 300

Stage Number

Figure 5.5 Stage by Stage decoding of erroneous image

The plot of each graph can be divided in two parts; in the first part, h drops very

fast and in the second part, h remains essentially flat. The first part shows that error

propagation reduces significantly whhin some initial stages. The reason is that most

blocks can be packed in the very few early stages. After that most slots are fiill and

therefore, any block, not yet fiilly packed must find space in a far away slot, which is

determined in a much later stage. Figure 5.5 shows that error propagation reduces much

earher for BiEREC. In other words, BiEREC packs residual of a block in the vicinity of

its initial slot.

54
5_.3.3 Comparison of Decoded Erroneous Images

This section demonstrates the visual effect of transmission error on Lena image.

The JPEG code of the image was packed by each of EREC and BiEREC algorithm and

20 bh errors were introduced randomly in the packed data. Each error reflected a

decoding error of certain DCT coefladent of some JPEG block. In the blocks in which an

error was detected, all the DCT coefiQcients were truncated to zero, since the exact

location of the start of the error may not be known.

Lena obtained using simulation of EREC is shown in Figure 5.6. The figure

shows distortion in several consecutive blocks. It shows that a single error in a slot can

affect blocks, which were notfiiUypacked in some previous slots, i.e., error is propagated

to a number of consecutive blocks.

Lena obtained using simulation of BiEREC is shown in Figure 5.7. Notice that

number of consecutive blocks affected by a single error is very small. This confirms the

results of Figure 5.5, that the BiEREC reduces propagation of errors.

55
Figure 5.6 Lena recovered using EREC

Figure 5.7 Lena recovered using BiEREC

56
 In Figure 5.6, we see predominantly horizontally consecutive blocks affected

whereas in Figure 5.7, vertically consecutive blocks are affected. Note that this 512 x 512

image was encoded by coding a row of 64 blocks of 8 x 8 pixels. Since number of blocks

= 256, four rows of 8 x 8 blocks were packed in a single EREC/BiEREC structure. In

BiEREC, since blocks are interleaved during packing, the block that is in the next scan

row in the image may be packed along the present block into a slot. It means that block i

and i + 128 were probably packed in a single slot by BiEREC encoder and i, i + 64, i +

128, i + 192 were placed in stage 2 and so on. So, due to propagation of error between

blocks packed in a single structure, two blocks that may lie next to each other in the

vertical direction in the image may get affected.

57
 CHAPTER 6
CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK

6.1 Conclusions

This thesis is a study of coding of muhimedia data stream for hs transmission

over wireless channels. It reports some improvements to increase the error resiliency of

data. This research was motivated by the work of Kmgsburry et al. [1], described as

EREC, that provides a method of packing variable length codes so that it can be

transmitted without adding any redundant data such as synchronization code words to the

actual data.

Our research extends the basic idea of EREC to overcome the hmitations stated in

section 3.3. The main limitation of EREC is that it causes excessive fragmentation of

blocks, during packing of data in slots. Block fragmentation is potential to propagation of

error. The improvements suggested in this thesis aim to reduce fragmentation of blocks

and thus reduce propagation of error. The improvements are

1. Pack data into a slot from both directions.

2. Interleave the blocks during packing.

3. Change the order in which slots are searched for space.

The motivation behind each of these improvements is explained in section 4.2. The thesis

presents an algorithm that incorporates the above improvements; it is named Bi-

Directional EREC and is described in sections 4.2 and 4.3.

58
 6.2 Contribution of this Research

As stated above, the main contribution of BiEREC is that h reduces fragmentation

of block codes, which helps in reducing propagation of error, and hence improves error

resiliency. Experimental resuhs to show improvements are given in Chapter 5. It

describes a number of ways to measure hnprovements of BiEREC over EREC. In section

5.2.1, we proposed a metric, packing-offset-quotient to measure the packing eflSciency of

BiEREC and EREC encoders. Experiments given in Table 6.1 show that BiEREC method

of packing reduces fragmentation of blocks by a factor of 2 or more. Figure 5.3 shows

that BiEREC packs efficiently not only for a whole image but also for individual

BiEREC structures.

In section 5.2.2, we measured the amount of data lost for different BER for both

BiEREC and EREC decoders, and found that the number of blocks lost in BiEREC is

always lesser than EREC by a factor of 2 or more. We also plotted a graph to show a

stage-by-stage propagation of error for both BiEREC and EREC decoding of Lena image.

In section 5.2.3, we compared two erroneous images, one decoded using EREC

and other using BiEREC to measure the visual effect and found that the picture decoded

using BiEREC has far fewer losses than one decoded using EREC.

In summary, the proposed extension of EREC, named BiEREC, does obtain the

objectives stated in Chapter 4.

59
 6.3 Future Work

Below are listed a few pointers forfixturepossible research work

1. The resuhs presented in Chapter 5 are for stih images. The input to BiEREC

was JPEG compressed data. Similar experiments could be carried out on

video data by using MPEG and/or H.261.

2. It is possible to fijrther increase error resiliency of BiEREC. One opfion is

to use BiEREC on reversible Huffman codes. This should reduce the

amount of blocks discarded, because the decoder can still proceed, if an

error is found while decoding from the forward direction.

3. BiEREC algorithm packs data in each slot individually and is independent

of other slots. This property may be used to develop a parallel

implementation of the BiEREC algorithm. It should speed up the

encoder/decoder.

4. Different variations of block interleaving and search order can be studied to

fiirther optimize BiEREC for different types of data streams.

60
 REFERENCES

[1] David W. Redmill and Nick G. Kingsbury: "The EREC: An Error Resilient
Technique for coding variable-length blocks of data," IEEE Trans. Image
Processing, 5(4), pp. 564-574, April 96.

[2] Wee Sun Lee, Mark R. Pickering, Michael R. Frater, and John F. Arnold: "Error
Resilience in Video and Multiplexing layers for very low bit rate video coding
Systems," IEEE Journal. Selec Areas in commun, 15(9), pp. 1764-1774,
December 1997.

[3] Bemd Girod and Niko Farber: "Feedback-Based Error Control for Mobile Video
Transmission," Proceedings of IEEE, 87(10), pp. 1707-1723,October 1999.

[4] International Organization for standardization (ISO) "JPEG digital compression and
coding of continuous-tone images," volume Draft ISO 10918, 1991.

[5] ISO/IEC International Standard 13818-2, Generic Coding of Moving Pictures and
Associated Audio Information: Video, 1995.

[6] ITU-T Recommendation H.263, Video coding for low bit rate communication.

[7] Mark Nelson , The Data Compression Book, Redwood, CA: M & T Books, 1991.

[8] Khalid Sayood, Introduction to Data Compression, San Francisco, CA: Morgan
Kaufmann Publishers, 1996.

19] Guy Cote, Bema Erol, Michael Gallant and Faouzi Kossentini: "H.263 +: Video
Coding at low bit rates," IEEE Trans on circuits and systems, 8(7), pp. 849-865,
November 1998.

[10] Wen Jeng Chu and Jin Jang Leou: "Detection and Concealment of Transmission
Errors in H.261 Images," IEEE Trans on circuits and systems, 8(1), pp. 74-83,
February 1998.

[11] W.P.L.Soon and W.C.Wong "Robust H.263 portable video coding" International
conf on Information, comm. and sig. Process, ICICS' 97, pp. 306-310,September 97.

[12] Man Young Rhee ,CDMA cellular mobile communications and network security,
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall PTR, 1998.

61
 [13] Andrew J. Viterbi, Principles of Spread spectrum communications,
Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Pub. Co., 1995.

[14] David J. Goodman and Dipankar Raychaudhuri, Mobile Multimedia

communications, New York: Plenum Press, cl997.

[15] J.C. Maxted and J.P. Robinson: "Error recovery for variable-length codes," IEEE
Trans. Inform. Theory, vol. IT-31, pp 794-801, 1985.

[16] T.J. Ferguson and J.H. Rabinowitz: "Self-synchronizing Huffman codes," IEEE
Trans. Inform. Theory, vol.30, pp-687-693, 1984.

[17] B.L. Montgomery and J. Abrahams: "Synchronizing of binary source codes," IEEE
Trans. Inform. Theory, vol-IT-32, pp-849-854, 1986.

[18] W.M. Lam and A.R. Reibman: "Self-synchronization variable-length codes for
image transmission," in Proc. Int. Conf Acoustics, Speech, Signal Processing 1992
pp. in-477-ni-480.

[19] N. MacDonald: "Transmission of compressed video over radio links," SPIE Visual
Commun. Image Processing, pp. 1484-1488, 1992.

[20] N.T. Cheng and N.G. Kingsburry: "The ERPC: An efficient error-resilient technique
for encoding positional information of sparse data," IEEE Trans. Commun. Vol.
COM-40, pp. 140-148, 1992.

[21] N.T. Cheng: "Error-resihent video coding for noisy channels," PhD thesis,
Cambridge Univ. Eng. Dept., 1991.

[22] D.W. Redmill and N.G. Kingsburry: "Improving the error resilience of entropy
coded video," in Image Processing: Theory and Applications, Proc. IPTA 93, San
Remo, Italy, June 14-16, 1993.

[23] D.W. Redmill: "Image and video coding for noisy channels," PhD thesis, Cambridge
Univ. Eng. Dept., 1994.

[24] D.W. Redmill and N.G. Kingsburry: "Still image coding for noisy channels," in
IEEE Int. Conf Image Processing, vol. 1, Austin, TX, 1994, pp. 95-99.

[25] M. Liou: "Overview of the p x 64 kbits/s video coding standard," Commun. ACM,
34(4), pp-59-63, 1993.

[26] Video codec for audiovisual services at p x 64 kbits/s, CCITT Recommendation

H.261, 1990

62
 PERMISSION TO COPY

In presentmg this thesis m partialftilfillmentof the requhements for a master's

degree at Texas Tech University or Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, I

agree that the Library and my major department shaU make itfreelyavailable for

research purposes. Permission to copy this thesis for scholarly purposes may be

granted by the Dh-ector of the Library or my major professor. It is understood that

any copymg or publication of this thesis for financial gam shaU not be aUowed

without my fiirther written permission and that any user may be liable for copyright

infringement.

Agree (Permission is granted.)

Disagree (Permission is not granted.)

Student Signature Date