Bandwidth saving architecture for scalable video coding spatial mode

• US 10,085,017 B2
• Filed: 11/29/2012
• Issued: 09/25/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/29/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., ATI Technologies ULC (Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., ATI Technologies ULC (Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.)
• Inventors: Zhang, Lei, Zhou, Ji, Chen, Zhen, Yu, Min
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Jay
• Assistant Examiner(s): Habib, Irfan
• Application Number:
  US13/689,212
• Publication Number:
  US 20140146883A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,126 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/117 Filters, e.g. for pre-processing or post-processing sub-band filter banks H04N19/635
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/159 Prediction type, e.g. intra-frame, inter-frame or bidirectional frame prediction
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/187 the unit being a scalable video layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/33 in the spatial domain
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/423 characterised by memory arrangements H04N19/433 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/59 involving spatial sub-sampling or interpolation, e.g. alteration of picture size or resolution
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/80 Details of filtering operations specially adapted for video compression, e.g. for pixel interpolation H04N19/635, H04N19/86 take precedence

Abstract

A system and method for scalable video coding that includes base layer having lower resolution encoding, enhanced layer having higher resolution encoding and the data transferring between two layers. The system and method provides several methods to reduce bandwidth of inter-layer transfers while at the same time reducing memory requirements. Due to less memory access, the system clock frequency can be lowered so that system power consumption is lowered as well. The system avoids having prediction data from base layer to enhanced layer to be up-sampled for matching resolution in the enhanced layer as transferring up-sampled data can impose a big burden on memory bandwidth.

Claims

1. A system for scalable video coding comprising:

a base layer encoder configured to encode a frame to a base layer;

the base layer encoder further configured to generate and transmit inter-layer data to an enhanced layer encoder, wherein the inter-layer data includes any one or a combination of residual data, reconstruction data, or motion data and a bit indicating whether the inter-layer data includes residual data; and

the enhanced layer encoder configured to receive the inter-layer data from the base layer encoder and upsample the received inter-layer data, wherein the residual data or reconstruction data included in the inter-layer data is received from the base layer encoder in the same number of data channels;

the enhanced layer encoder further configured to encode the frame to an enhanced layer using the upsampled inter-layer data based on a micro-block (MB) type of the base layer, wherein the MB type of the base layer indicates whether the inter-layer data includes either residual data or reconstruction data, wherein the resolution of the enhanced layer is greater than the resolution of the base layer.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein:

the base layer encoder and the enhanced layer encoder are spatial scale encoding engines.

3. The system of claim 1 further comprising at least one data channel between the base layer encoder and the enhanced layer encoder for transmitting the reconstruction data and the residual data, wherein the at least one channel has less than all of the bits for transmitting the reconstruction data and the residual data.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the base layer encoder further includes an output multiplexer configured to control the transmission of the reconstruction data and the residual data to the enhanced layer encoder.

5. A method for performing scalable video coding comprising:

encoding a frame to a base layer using a base layer encoder;

generating and transmitting, by the base layer encoder, inter-layer data to an enhanced layer encoder, wherein the inter-layer data includes any one or a combination of residual data, reconstruction data, or motion data;

receiving, by the enhanced layer encoder, the inter-layer data from the base layer encoder and upsampling the received inter-layer data, wherein the residual data or reconstruction data included in the inter-layer data is received from the base layer encoder in the same number of data channels; and

encoding, by the enhanced layer encoder, the frame to an enhanced layer using the upsampled inter-layer data based on a micro-block (MB) type of the base layer, wherein the MB type of the base layer indicates whether the inter-layer data includes either residual data or reconstruction data, wherein the resolution of the enhanced layer is greater than the resolution of the base layer.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein:

the base layer encoder and the enhanced layer encoder are spatial scale encoding engines.

7. The method of claim 5 including:

transmitting the reconstruction data and the residual data using at least one data channel, wherein the at least one channel has less than all of the bits for transmitting the reconstruction data and the residual data.

8. The method of claim 7 including:

controlling the transmission of the reconstruction data and the residual data to the enhanced layer encoder using an output multiplexer in the base layer encoder.

9. A computer readable non-transitory medium including instructions which when executed in a processing system cause the processing system to provide scalable video coding comprising:

a base layer encoder configured to encode a frame to a base layer;

the base layer encoder further configured to generate and transmit inter-layer data to an enhanced layer encoder, wherein the inter-layer data includes any one or a combination of residual data, reconstruction data, or motion data; and

the enhanced layer encoder configured to receive the inter-layer data from the base layer encoder and upsample the received inter-layer data;

the enhanced layer encoder further configured to encode the frame to an enhanced layer using the upsampled inter-layer data based on a micro-block (MB) type of the base layer, wherein the MB type of the base layer indicates whether the inter-layer data includes either residual data or reconstruction data, wherein the resolution of the enhanced layer is greater than the resolution of the base layer.