Efficient Rate Control for Motion JPEG2000 under Constraint Memory

Fine scalability can provide not only precise rate control for constant bitrate (CBR) traffic, but also accurate quality control for variable bitrate (VBR) traffic. Motion JPEG2000 is a codec that can provide fine scalability with bitstreams. An efficient rate control approach utilizing a single buffer and two kinds of threshold for Motion JPEG2000 under resource constraint was proposed, which can offer good result in the constant quality video.

Adaptive rate control on wireless transcoder

To guarantee the real-time transmission of a video stream, based on the stochastic optimal control method, a frame layer adaptive rate control algorithm for the wireless transcoder is proposed, which is capable of dynamically determining the transcoder＇s objective bit rate, according to the bandwidth variation of the wireless channel and the buffer occupancy. Then the transient performance, steady performance, and computational complexity of the algorithm are analyzed. Finally, the experiment results demonstrate that the algorithm can improve the synthetic performance of rate control through the compromise between the end-to-end delay and the playout quality.

Optimal source rate control for adapting VBR video over CBR channels

In this paper we discuss the source rate control problem of adapting variable bit-rate （VBR） compressed video over constant bit-rate （CBR） channels. Firstly we formulate it as an optimal control problem of a discrete linear system with state and control constraints. Then we apply the discrete maximum principle to get the optimal solution. Experimental results are given in the end. Compared with traditional algorithms, the proposed algorithm is suitable for the coder with continuous output rates, and can achieve the better solution. Our algorithm can be used in both off-line and on-line coding.

Fair rate control for wireless ad-hoc networks with time varying channel capacities

We consider the problem of fair rate control for wireless ad-hoc networks with time varying channel capacities. The interaction between links in wireless ad-hoc networks introduces additional constraints on the flow rate. A primal-dual algorithm that guarantees fair rate control is proved to be trajectory stable. Various fairness indexes are obtained by choosing the specified form of the utility functions, and the numerical results validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

An Improved Rate Control Method Based on Modification at Scene Change for H.264

This paper presents an improved rate control method for H.264. First, the scene changes are detected by the average absolute difference of the brightness histograms between the adjacent frames. Then, the bit allocation and quantization parameters are adjusted, using a certain threshold. In addition, the calculation of the mean absolute difference （MAD） is modified in an alternative way, which makes the rate distortion optimization （RDO） more accurate. Extensive simulation results show that the proposed method, compared with G012, can improve the average peak signal-to-noise ratio （PSNR） and moderate the image quality.

Model classification rate control algorithmfor video coding

A model classification rate control method for video coding is proposed. The macro-blocks are classified according to their prediction errors, and different parameters are used in the rate-quantization and distortion-quantization model. The different model parameters are calculated from the previous frame of the same type in the process of coding. These models are used to estimate the relations among rate, distortion and quantization of the current frame. Further steps, such as R-D optimization based quantization adjustment and smoothing of quantization of adjacent macrobloeks, are used to improve the quality. The results of the experiments prove that the technique is effective and can be realized easily. The method presented in the paper can be a good way for MPEG and H. 264 rate control.

A rate control scheme for H.264 video under low bandwidth channel

The dilemma of the quantization parameter (QP) being involved in both rate control and rate-distortion optimization (RDO) prevents using the traditional rate control scheme. Although some rate control schemes are proposed to circumvent the dilemma, the inaccurate prediction model and improper bit allocation deter H.264 application on low bandwidth channel. To resolve this issue, this paper proposes a novel rate control scheme by considering the macroblock (MB) encoding complexity variation and buffer variation and by exploiting the spatio-temporal correlation sufficiently well. Simulations showed that this scheme improves the perceptual quality of the pictures with similar or smaller PSNR deviations when compared to that of rate control in JVT-O016.

RATE CONTROL ALGORITHM FOR H.264 VIDEO ENCODER

This letter proposes a rate control algorithm for H.264 video encoder, which is based on block activity and buffer state. Experimental results indicate that it has an excellent performance by providing much accurate bit rate and better coding efficiency compared with H.264. The computational complexity of the algorithm is reduced by adopting a novel block activity description method using the Sum of Absolute Difference (SAD) of 16× 16 mode, and its robustness is enhanced by introducing a feedback circuit at frame layer.

An efficient rate control algorithm for JPEG2000 based on reverse order

The JPEG2000 image compression standard is the powerful encoder which can provide phenomenal rate-control performance. The post-compression rate-distortion(PCRD) algorithm in JPEG2000 is not efficient. It requires encoding all coding passes even though a large contribution of them will not be contained in the final code-stream. Tier-1 encoding in the JPEG2000 standard takes a significant amount of memory and coding time. In this work, a low-complexity rate distortion method for JPEG2000 is proposed. It is relied on a reverse order for the resolution levels and the coding passes. The proposed algorithm encodes only the coding passes contained in the final code-stream and it does not need any post compression rate control part. The computational complexity of proposed algorithm is negligible, making it suitable to compression and attaining a significant performance. Simulations results show that the proposed algorithm obtained the PSNR values are comparable with the optimal PCRD.

In-Network Puncturing for Delay-Efficient Rate Control of Distributed Video Coding in Wireless Video Sensor Networks

Wyner-Ziv Video Coding (WZVC) is considered as a promising video coding scheme for Wireless Video Sensor Networks (WVSNs) due to its high comp ression efficiency and error resilience functionalities, as well as its low encoding comp lexity. To achieve a good Rate-Distortion (R-D) performance, the current WZVC paradigms usually adopt an end-to-end rate control scheme in which the decoder rep eatedly requests the additional decoding data from the encoder for decoding Wyner-Ziv frames. Therefore, the waiting time of the additional decoding data is esp ecially long in multihop WVSNs. In this paper, we propose a novel progressive in-network rate control scheme for WZVC. The proposed in-network puncturing-based rate control scheme transfers the partial channel codes puncturing task from the encoder to the relay nodes. Then, the decoder can request the additional decoding data from the relay nodes instead of the encoder, and the total waiting time for decoding Wyner-Ziv frames is reduced consequently. Simulation results validate the proposed rate control scheme.

Channel adaptive rate control for energy optimization

Low energy consumption is one of the main challenges for wireless video transmission on battery limited devices. The energy invested at the lower layers of the protocol stack involved in data communication, such as link and physical layer, represent an important part of the total energy consumption. This communication energy highly depends on the channel conditions and on the transmission data rate. Traditionally, video coding is unaware of varying channel conditions. In this paper, we propose a cross-layer approach in which the rate control mechanism of the video codec becomes channel-aware and steers the instantaneous output rate according to the channel conditions to reduce the communication energy. Our results show that energy savings of up to30% can be obtained with a reduction of barely 0.1 dB on the average video quality. The impact of feedback delays is shown to be small. In addition, this adaptive mechanism has low complexity, which makes it suitable for real-time applications.

A New MPEG-2 Rate Control Method Based on Model Classification

The paper proposed a new MPEG-2 rate control method that is based on model classification. The macro-blocks are classified according to their prediction errors, and different parameters are used in the rate-quantization and distortion-quantization model. The different model parameters are calculated from the previous frame of the same type in the process of coding. These models are used to estimate the relations among rate, distortion and quantization of the current frame. Further steps, such as R-D optimization based quantization adjustment and smoothing of quantization of adjacent macroblocks, are used to improve the quality. The results of the experiments prove that the technique is effective and can be realized easily. The method presented in the paper can be a good way for MPEG rate control.

Dynamic multimedia stream adaptation and rate control for heterogeneous networks

Dynamic adaptation of multimedia content is seen as an important feature of next generation networks and pervasive systems enabling terminals and applications to adapt to changes in e.g. context, access network, and available Quality-of-Service(QoS) due to mobility of users, devices or sessions. We present the architecture of a multimedia stream adaptation service which enables communication between terminals having heterogeneous hardware and software capabilities and served by heterogeneous networks. The service runs on special content adaptation nodes which can be placed at any location within the network. The flexible structure of our architecture allows using a variety of different adaptation engines. A generic transcoding engine is used to change the codec of streams. An MPEG-21 Digital Item Adaptation (DIA) based transformation engine allows adjusting the data rate of scalable media streams. An intelligent decision-taking engine implements adaptive flow control which takes into account current network QoS parameters and congestion information. Measurements demonstrate the quality gains achieved through adaptive congestion control mechanisms under conditions typical for a heterogeneous network.

Macroblock-Level Rate Control Scheme for Video Encoders

Rate control plays an important role in video coding. An algorithm is proposed by Tsai et al in which macroblock’s coding order is rearranged to improve the coding quality. However, the complexity is very high due to the change of macroblock’s coding order. In this paper, a macroblocl-level rate control algorithm is proposed which recalculates the quantization parameter of each macroblock based on its significance. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm not only achieves 0.1-0.6 dB in peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) but also reduces 33%-55% total encoding time compared to Tsai’s algorithm.

VBR WAVELET VIDEO CODING AND ITS RATE CONTROL IN ATM NETWORKS

This paper presents a new video coding system based on wavelet transform and its rate control scheme over ATM networks. First, three dimensional wavelet transform is performed for the original image sequence, and an extension of set partitioning in hierarchical trees algorithm is employed to quantize the wavelet coefficients. Then, the output rate of the coder is controlled at group of frame scale, ensuring that it conforms to the parameters of a leaky bucket controller. Several leaky buckets with different sizes are discussed too. Simulation shows the efficiency of this codec and the effectiveness of the proposed rate control scheme.

Equation based rate control scheme for video streaming over wireless channels with link level ARQ

Equation based TCP-friendly rate control (TFRC) protocol has been proposed to support video streaming applications. In order to improve TFRC performance in wireless channels, the link level automatic repeat request (ARQ) scheme is usually deployed. However, ARQ cannot ensure strict delay guarantees, especially over multihop links. This paper introduces a theoretical model to deduce an equation for packet size adjustment in transport layer to minimize retransmission delay by taking into con- sideration the causative reasons inducing retransmission in link layer. An enhanced TFRC (ETFRC) scheme is proposed inte- grating TFRC with variable packet size policy. Simulation results demonstrate that higher goodput, lower packet loss rate (PLR), lower frame transmission delay and jitter with good fairness can be achieved by our proposed mechanism.

An Improvement of MPEG-4 Rate Control Algorithm

Frame skipping in low bit video coding could significantly reduce the visual quality of reconstructed video. At the same time, if the complexity of the video sequence remains high for a long period, then driving up the long term average bit rate, the only resort of MPEG-4 Q2 rate control algorithm results in using a high quantization scale, which shows a poor visual quality of the reconstructed video. This paper analyzes the main causes of frame skipping in current MPEG-4 frame rate control scheme, and presents a new rate control algorithm based on the quadratic R-D model over a CBR channel. Key features of the present work are: 1) the bits allocated to each P-frame or B-frame are in proportion to its distance from the end of this GOP, i.e. more bits are allocated to the frames that are nearer to their reference Ⅰ-frame; 2) the target buffer level is changeable in the GOP, at the end of each GOP(five P-frames or B-frames), the target buffer level is linearly reduced from 1/2 to 1/4 of buffer size, to other frames, the target buffer level is set to 1/2 of buffer size; 3) a selective and judicious use of the reduced resolution mode, in addition to a modulation of the quantization scale parameter, is to control the average long term bit rate. Experimental results with different video sequences of varied complexity, encoded at low bit rates show better efficacy of the proposed algorithm than MPEG-4 Q2 rate control scheme, and the experimental results also show that the improved algorithm has significantly reduced the number of frame skipping, increased the overall PSNR, and improved the perceptual quality.

Improved Rate Control Using Statistical Information in Unit-Layer for H.264/AVC

The purpose of this paper is to improve allocation of the number of bits by estimating the target bits in H.264/AVC rate control.In the scheme,an enhancement method of the target unit-layer bit allocation is proposed,which uses a frame and unit complexity estimation to improve the existing mean absolute difference(MAD)complexity measurement.Using the statistical characteristics,we obtain change of occurrence bit about QP to apply the bit amount by QP from the video characteristics in the estimated bit amount of the current frame.Simulation results show that not only the proposed rate control scheme could achieve time saving of more than 99% over existing rate control algorithm,but also PSNR and bit rate were almost the same as the performance in all the sequences.

Rate Control for MPEG-4 Bit Stream

For a very long time video processing dealt exclusively with fixed-rate sequences of rectangular shaped images. However, interest has been recently moving toward a more flexible concept in which the subject of the processing and encoding operations is a set of visual elements organized in both time and space in a flexible and arbitrarily complex way. The moving picture experts group (MPEG- 4) standard supports this concept and its verification model (VM) encoder has adopted scalable rate control (SRC) as the rate control scheme, which is based on the spatial domain and compatible with constant bit rate (CBR) and variable bit rate (VBR). In this paper,a new rate control algorithm based on the DCT domain instead of the pixel domain is presented. More-(over), macroblock level rate control scheme to compute the quantization step for each macroblock has been adopted. The experimental results show that the new algorithm can achieve a much better result than the original one in both peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and the coding bits, and that the new algorithm is more flexible than test model 5 (TM5) rate control algorithm.