Error-resilient packet video coding using harmonic frame-expansions and temporal prediction

This paper proposes a novel error-resilient packet video codec through the use of harmonic frame-expansions. It provides robustness to packet video in erasure channels in an integrated framework without requiring inter/intra coding modes. In the proposed method, spatial redundancy is added by applying a frame-expansion to DCT coefficients while temporal redundancy is added by filtering the motion compensated reference blocks. The frame expansion provides excellent error-resilience at low frequencies, while filtering of motion-reference blocks prevents the propagation of errors at high frequencies. Mathematical expressions of the PSNR for packet video streams with arbitrary losses are derived using piecewise linear approximations. Preliminary simulation results have shown that the proposed codec has generated high quality video at low bit-rates with significant packet losses, and has much less visual artifact than the conventional codec's with similar PSNRs.