Low-complexity unequal packet loss protection for real-time video over ubiquitous networks

Ubiquitous multimedia services are emerging to be available at anytime and anywhere using a variety of computing devices. In this paper, we propose a low-complexity unequal loss protection (ULP) scheme for real-time transmission of video over ubiquitous networks. By using the unequal importance existing in different levels of hierarchical structure for video coding, the assignment algorithm for forward error correction (FEC) of packets with low complexity is proposed. The developed algorithm for efficient FEC assignment is based on a simple closed form solution for the estimation of the expected length of error propagation. The closed form solution represents well the weighted temporal propagation effect of packet loss. The proposed algorithm provides a simple and effective FEC assignment with much reduced computational complexity. Simulation results show that the performance is better while the computational complexity is very low compared to the previous ULP scheme. Hence the proposed FEC assignment scheme can be used efficiently for real-time video applications over ubiquitous networks.