Packet loss resilient transmission of MPEG video over the Internet

A method is proposed to protect MPEG video quality from packet loss for real-time transmission over the Internet. Because MPEG uses inter-frame coding, relatively small packet loss rates in IP transmission can dramatically reduce the quality of the received MPEG video. In the proposed high-priority protection (HiPP) method, the MPEG video stream is split into high- and low-priority partitions, using a technique similar to MPEG-2 data partitioning. Overhead resilient data for the MPEG video stream is created by applying forward error correction coding to only the high-priority portion of the video stream. The high- and low-priority data, and resilient data, are sent over a single channel, using a packetization method that maximizes resistance to burst losses, while minimizing delay and overhead. Because the proposed method has low delay and does not require re-transmission, it is well suited for interactive and multicast applications. Simulations were performed comparing the improvement in video quality using the HiPP method, using experimental Internet packet loss traces with loss rates in the range of 0–8.5%. Overhead resiliency data rates of 0%, 12.5%, 25%, and 37.5% were studied, with different compositions of the overhead data for the 25% and 37.5% overhead rates, in an attempt to find the “best” composition of the overhead data. In the presence of packet loss, the received video quality, as measured by PSNR and the Negsob measure, was significantly improved when the HiPP method was applied.