Multiple description video coding based on hierarchical B pictures using unequal redundancy

Multiple description video coding (MDC) is one of the approaches for reducing the detrimental effects caused by transmission over error-prone networks. In this paper, a MDC model based on hierarchical B pictures is proposed to optimize the tradeoff between coding efficiency and error resilience. The model produces two descriptors by applying different MDC techniques such as duplication, spatial splitting and temporal splitting on the different frames of video sequences, taking into account unequal importance of frames at different hierarchical levels. Duplication (high redundancy) is for key frames: spatial splitting (medium redundancy) for reference B frames, and temporal splitting (low redundancy) for nonreference B frames. For one descriptor loss, the model applies different estimation methods, but for the two descriptor loss case, the same temporal estimation is employed. As a consequence, better error resilience can be achieved at high coding efficiency. The advantages of the proposed model are demonstrated in error-free and packet loss networks.