Temporal Scalability through Adaptive <inline-formula><graphic file="1687-6180-2006-021930-i1.gif"/></inline-formula>-Band Filter Banks for Robust H.264/MPEG-4 AVC Video Coding

Abstract

This paper presents different structures that use adaptive -band hierarchical filter banks for temporal scalability. Open-loop and closed-loop configurations are introduced and illustrated using existing video codecs. In particular, it is shown that the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC codec allows us to introduce scalability by frame shuffling operations, thus keeping backward compatibility with the standard. The large set of shuffling patterns introduced here can be exploited to adapt the encoding process to the video content features, as well as to the user equipment and transmission channel characteristics. Furthermore, simulation results show that this scalability is obtained with no degradation in terms of subjective and objective quality in error-free environments, while in error-prone channels the scalable versions provide increased robustness.