Feedback Channel Suppression in Distributed Video Coding with Adaptive Rate Allocation and Quantization for Multiuser Applications

We present a novel rate allocation technique for distributed multiuser video coding systems without the need for a permanent feedback channel. Based on analytical calculations, the system unequally distributes the available bandwidth among the different users, taking into account the actual amount of movement in the transmitted video as well as the transmission conditions of each user. On one hand, the quantization parameters are dynamically tuned in order to optimize the decoding quality. On the other hand, a frame dropping mechanism allows the system to avoid unnecessary channel use, when the analytical estimations show that the successful decoding of a given frame is not possible because of very high motion or bad channel conditions. A significant gain in the system performance is noticed compared with the case of equal allocation of channel resources and constant quantization parameters.