Macroblock selection algorithms for error resilient H.264 video wireless transmission using redundant slices

In this paper, a redundant picture formation algorithm that takes into account a given redundancy rate constraint is presented for error resilient wireless video transmission without reliance on retransmissions. The algorithm assigns priorities to MBs according to two suggested metrics and ranks macroblocks accordingly. The first metric is based on an end-to-end distortion model and aims at maximising the reduction in distortion per redundancy bit. The end-to-end distortion accounts for the effects of error propagation, mismatch between the primary and redundancy description and error concealment. Macroblocks providing large distortion reduction for fewer bits spent are assigned a higher priority. The second metric employs the variance of the motion vectors of a macroblock and those of its neighbouring blocks. Results show that the rate distortion metric outperforms other examined metrics by up to 2dB. Moreover, gains over existing error resilience schemes, such as LA-RDO, are presented.